On March 2nd, Yorba Linda High School’s speech and debate program participated in the 2018 Orange County Speech League State Qualifier. Across all events Yorba Linda High School contestants won accolades. In the end, Blake Han(11), Ryan Lowery (11), Caitlyn Truong (10), Rohita Themanneni (9), Anna Zhang (9), and Julia Massey (12) are representing the OCSL for Parliamentary and congressional debate, and original advocacy.

For the seniors in Speech and Debate, this was the last tournament of their high school career. Many have been speech and debate veterans, participating in over multiple tournaments and achieving many accolades to reflect their expertise.

Nate Yi(12) said Speech and Debate “has been absolutely amazing. It has allowed [him] to develop his confidence and speaking skills all the while tuning [his] critical thinking skills. It allows students to keep up with current events around the world while teaching them to better write and argue in any topic. The skills have real life applications in the future for interviews, presentations…”

Ryan Le(12) has enjoyed his four years in the YLHS speech and debate program saying the team “is like another family. You make and meet so many friends. You spend time with each other in tournaments, hanging out while waiting for the postings to eventually go up. Speech and debate has been an enjoyable program for [him], and [he] has no regrets for taking the class from the very beginning.”

Simran Chowdhry(12) echoes the same sentiment: “speech and debate is so much fun. The workload can be heavy at times, but it has taught [her] so much and has been an overall great experience in [her] high school career. Ms. Dagampat is very nice and supportive, always saying she is proud of her students.”

As the seniors enjoy their last tournament at Orange County Speech League State Qualifier, the state qualifiers of YLHS representing OCSL prepare for the annual state championship. This year the state championship is hosted by California High School Speech Association at Mountain House High School in Northern California.

Caitlyn Truong(10) expressed her excitement: “I am a little nervous for the state championship, but no matter what it would be a fun and teaching experience.”