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 are bringing a record sixteen students to the State Championship this April and look forward to building our program even further next year.
My Project
The NCFL National Championship is one of the most elite tournaments offered on the national circuit. Even being eligible to go is a really big deal since students have to earn the spot at regional qualifiers. Last year was our first year qualifying students and we sent two: this year we were proud to qualify three!
Competing at this tournament will enable our top three students to have their voices heard on the national stage and to learn from some of the best speakers in the country.
Unfortunately, as you might imagine, it is a very costly project to send kids to Nationals and we need support to make it happen.
Students will undoubtedly feel empowered by the chance to participate at Nationals and this confidence will help them not just in future speech tournaments but at college and beyond.
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
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