CENTENNIAL SPEECH AND DEBATE
Go Eagles!
Centennial Speech and Debate is a student run club here at Centennial High School promoting the mastery of the art of oration and its facets of persuasion, eloquence, and storytelling through the participation in various events at monthly tournaments.
DEBATE
Students receive a resolution that stems from an ongoing problem in the world from the National Speech and Debate Association on a monthly basis and set out to research the topic and create cases either agreeing or disagreeing with the resolution. More information on the types of debates can be found in events.
SPEECH
Students are presented with a wide variety of events to choose from to demonstrate their oratory prowess. With events ranging from Impromptu speaking to creating your own ten minute narrative, there is an event for everyone. More information on the types of speeches can be found in events.
WHY + HOW TO JOIN
Joining Speech & Debate is not just about joining your every-day club, but joining a community of passionate teammates that you will bond with as they push you to succeed at tournaments and advance to higher levels. It is also a great opportunity to foster your communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creative skills with real world practicality. We also have brownies every meeting :)
Join at https://forms.gle/82XgrwnNYQC98Ttd9
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Centennial Speech and Debate welcomes all members regardless of their experience. We have a fully developed beginners curriculum, personalized sessions, and mock tournments to help you grow your experience in speech and debate. Our board consists of BCFL tournament winners, state qualifiers, and national qualifiers who will devote their time to help you improve upon your skills. General members are welcome to join at any point of the year, however, we recommend doing so by the beginning of the year so you get to participate in as many tournaments as possible.
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Currently, all our meetings will take place online via Google Meets until future notice
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In-person meetings will take place every Wednesday after school in Ms. Michelle Flynn’s classroom, online meeting information will be released soon.
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Email centennialdebateteam@gmail.com if you want more information about joining our team and accessing meeting materials
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Board applications are open in the month of May, and more information will be released then
SPEECH AND DEBATE EVENTS
DEBATE RESOURCES
What is Public Forum Debate?
A competitive debate event where two teams, each consisting of two debaters, debate a certain resolution (or topic) that is released monthly or bimonthly. New topics will be debated for September + October, November + December, January, February, March, and April, with each topic being released a month before.
Septober (September + October) 2020 resolution: “Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare For All Act of 2019.”
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Order of Speeches in Debate Round
Useful Links​
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Generally improve at Public Forum Debate: https://www.learnpublicforum.com/
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Learn more about progressive argumentation (Theory, K’s) in pf debate: https://pfforward.weebly.com/
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Gain access to Public Forum Debate cases + blockfiles from previous topics and years: https://pf.circuitdebater.org/w/index.php/Main_Page
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Gain access to cases on current topics: https://hspf.debatecoaches.org/
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Round recordings are one of the best ways to learn techniques from some of the nation’s best debaters, practice flowing, etc:
PF Videos; very good resource providing 200+ Public Forum Debate round recordings at national level tournaments: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYPPO78Q16D9p4_bX0rR2QQ/videos
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TOC (Tournament of Champions) 2020 Rounds: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CWtC5BY_nEBYY0Eqkgtd3RsaOBTBdKi_Zdg8Qao_dlw/edit#gid=0
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To view more Public Forum Debate rounds, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUnyLbeu7qU&list=PLnXkedLQnOXgLO85ljiQABMnCmuP7_6LK
SPEECHÂ RESOURCES
How to cut pieces: To cut a piece means to edit it’s contents by striking lines/paragraphs so it fits the time limits. This is typically done if you have a piece that you love but is too long for the requirements such as a book, play, or just a longer speech. This website does a great job explaining how this is done.
https://www.forensicscommunity.com/humorousinterpretation/how-cut-interpretation-piece
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Event Resources
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Declamation:
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Choose a speech that you connect with and that is interesting
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Dramatic
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https://www.playscripts.com/forensics or https://www.playscripts.com/high-school
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The full scripts cost money
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https://stageagent.com/monologues
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Both comedic and serious pieces can be found here
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Oral Interpretation:
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Poetry
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If you can’t find a piece long enough, you can combine poems that have the same theme to reach the time limit
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Prose
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Examples of prose are novels, textbooks, speeches, and newspaper articles
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Children’s Literature: This event requires you to have a physical copy of a book​
MEET THE BOARD
PRESIDENT: ADITYA BALASUBRAMANIAN
Aditya is a senior at Centennial High School, where he is part of the school's soccer team, President of Speech & Debate and FBLA (future business leaders of America), Vice President of National Math Honor Society, a member of Red Cross, and National Honor Society. Outside of school, he is a programming volunteer at FoodonThe15th, a developer creating a chrome extension, and an aspiring card magician.
VICE PRESIDENT: MATTHEW LIU
Matthew is a junior with two years of experience in public forum. He is responsible for assisting the president as his second in command in all duties.
SECRETARY: SUNNY GU
Sunny is a junior who competes in Public Forum Debate and Impromptu Speaking. She manages communication throughout the club, tournament information, and record keeping.
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER: LUCAS YANG
Lucas is a sophomore who specializes in Public Forum Debate. He is in charge of club advertising and recruitment.
FUNDRAISING OFFICER: TOMAS GERMANAS
Tomas is a senior with 5 years of experience in Public Forum. He is responsible for arranging and coordinating all fundraising efforts.
SPEECH OFFICER: EMILY XING
Emily is a sophomore who has experience in Original Oratory and Declamation. She is in charge of running speech meetings and is a liaison between speech competitors and our advisor.
MS OUTREACH SPEECH OFFICER: CHRISTLY BRIGHT
Christy is a senior in her 4th year of speech and debate with competitive experience in events such as Memorized Public Address, Programmed Oral Interpretation, and Oral Interpretation. As speech officer, she is responsible for the operation of the middle school speech program at Burleigh Manor.
MS OUTREACH DEBATE OFFICER: NOELLE MITCHELL
Noelle is a junior in her third year of Public Forum Debate and her second in Impromptu Speaking. She is responsible for the operation of the middle school debate program at Burleigh Manor.
