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 second year having a Speech Team, over 25 active members were extremely successful at local, regional and national competitions this past year. Students advanced to elimination rounds at several national tournaments this year, including: Villiger at St. Joseph's University, the Princeton Classic at Princeton University, and the Liberty Bell Classic at the University of Pennsylvania. One student earned a spot at the Tournament of Champions at the University of Lexington and also at the Extemp Tournament of Champions at Northwestern University. Two students earned spots to the NCFL National Championship in Sacramento over Memorial Day Weekend. Over the course of our season, nine students qualified for the New York State Championship in April, where four of our them advanced to quarter-finals.
My Project
Last year at States, there were exactly four people of color in the Extemp Prep Room, and three of them were my students. Through their hard work, my students, who are all people of color and most of whom come from low-income families, are literally changing the face of what Speech & Debate looks like on the state and national circuit.
This tournament is the qualifier for the National Speech and Debate Association National Championship, the most competitive tournament on the entire national circuit, but to get to NSDA, we need to get to the qualifier, and to get to the qualifier, we need your support.
Last year, we had a student make it to Semi-Finals at the qualifier, better than ever before, and I want to make sure we give our top kids the opportunity to give it their best shot.
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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