Congratulations to Yorba Linda High School’s Speech and Debate team for competing in their first tournament at CSUF! Members of the Speech and Debate team attended the invitational from October 14 to October 15, where several received accolades for their performances.

As a seventh period class taught by Ms. Dagampat (Staff), students in Speech and Debate may choose among dozens of events of performing a speech and/or debating topics. Speech events include dramatic interpretation, humorous interpretation, prose-poetry reading, duo interpretation, original oratory, oratorical interpretation, or impromptu speaking. All require a speech about eight to ten minutes long with evaluations based on performance, memorization, and content.

Debate events include Lincoln-Douglas debate, where one student debates with another about a current topic, Student Congress, where students imitate Senators and Representatives arguing for or against legislations, and Parliament. Debate events are for students who are up to date with current news and able to persuasively deliver convincing arguments against others.

Speech and Debate is a rewarding class which improves students’ public speaking and writing skills. After weeks of practice, YLHS’s Speech and Debate team competed in the CSUF Fall Invitational and had a fun, educational experience which many also received awards from. Wayne Chan (11), a member of Congressional debate, reflects, “Although the tournament was tiring, Fullerton was a great experience. We debated many legislations that reflected actual real-world issues. Overall, I participated in 4 rounds, each lasting approximately one hour to one hour and 30 minutes.

The first three rounds were preliminary rounds, and the last round consisted of only finalists. The final round was intense as the top debaters from the preliminary rounds met to debate two legislations. The tournament was a fun and learning experience, and I was very proud of YLHS’s performance in Congressional debate. We took 2 places in the top 10 rank in the varsity division and our novice competitors dominated in the final round as well.”

Wayne Chan (11) received ninth place in open Congressional debate for his performance. Additionally, YLHS students Aarti Tandon (12) placed fifth and Ryan Le (12) was a finalist for open Congressional debate. Rohita Thammineni (9), Matt Lee (11), and Soham Bhagat (9) placed third, eighth, and tenth respectively in novice Congressional debate, and Mitchell Han (9) was a finalist. Simran Chowdry (12) received second place as a Presiding Officer in Student Congress. Amaris Lee (9) was a finalist for humorous interpretation; Aino Hakkinen (11) and Jordan Sain (12) were finalists for dramatic interpretation. Daania Kalam (12) and Kelly Nguyen (12) were semi-finalists for impromptu and original oratory, respectively.

Congratulations to YLHS’s Speech and Debate team for their hard work at their first tournament at CSUF!