My school is a public charter school that serves 400 phenomenal Black and Latino students, 75% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Our Speech & Debate Team provides students who are historically underrepresented in Speech & Debate with the opportunities to compete both locally and nationally in public speaking and debating.
Even though it was only our third year having a speech team, over 25 active members were extremely successful at local, regional, and national competitions this past year. We have had students advance to elimination rounds all around the country including at Yale, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Harvard, and Emory. We brought a record sixteen students to the State Championship last April and three kids to Nationals last year and look forward to building our program even further this year.
My Project
As we have competed on the national circuit, it seems like every school we go up against routinely sends a large percentage of its squad to expensive Speech & Debate camps over the summer. We were lucky to work out a scholarship partnership with one of these camps and this is our first year sending kids to camp.
If our kids could accomplish everything they've done so far without camp, I can't wait to see what they accomplish when they get to go!
We are taking some of our top students and this is a great opportunity for them to pick pieces and write debate cases for next year and to work with some of the top coaches in the country. But first we have to get there! Your support will fund a bus to cover our way to camp.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Teacher DiColandrea and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
{"pmaHash":"","showProjectRecommendations":true,"leadGenEnabled":true,"hideTeacherDetails":false,"schoolState":"NY","teacherPossessivePronoun":"their","PMsManager":null,"schoolGradeType":{"id":4,"name":"High School"},"TeacherPMForms":{},"completingDonationAmount":0,"teacherHasClassroomPhoto":true,"proposalURL":"https://www.donorschoose.org/project/send-brooklyn-team-to-speech-debate-ca/3321995/","mayHaveReplacements":false,"numStudents":12,"isEquityFocusV1":true,"teacherScreenName":"Teacher DiColandrea","isEquityFocus":true,"proposalHash":"-504148000","isApplePayMobileOnly":true,"progressBarPercentage":100.00,"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":false,"photosPublished":true,"queryString":"","DonorPMForm":null,"shouldTrackEquityFocusV2":true,"schoolCity":"New York City","teachersOnPage":[112031],"isTeacherViewingTheirOwnProject":false,"minimizedLeadGenEnabled":true,"proposalId":3321995,"proposalMessageFormModel":null,"numActiveProjects":0,"verifyShowPhotos":"","eligibleToBeCopied":false,"schoolId":99742,"schoolName":"Achievement First Brooklyn High School","authorIds":{"112031":{"owner":"Teacher DiColandrea","donationSalutations":{}}},"displayedPercentFunded":1.0,"proposalsOnPage":[3321995],"pmaId":"","teacherProfilePhotoURL":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp112031_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1457757529311","teacherHasProfilePhoto":true,"currentWorkflowStatusCode":21,"teacherChallengeId":32618,"isApplePayEnabled":true,"fundedByTarget":false,"activeProject":null,"donorIdsForImpactPhotoCheck":["NTEyMTI1NQ==","NDUxNzA3NQ==","NDU5MDY5NA==","NDM2MzA3NQ==","MTA5MDc3"],"teacherId":112031,"schoolCounty":"Kings (Brooklyn)","fullyFunded":true,"isStudentLed":false,"isExpired":true,"schoolStateObj":{"code":"NY","name":"New York"}}
