La Cueva Speech and Debate! Coach: Susan Schripsema President: Amy Lee Vice Presidents: Emily Hong and Jarrod Jeffcoat Administrator: TJ L’Esperance Historians: Sophie Yang and Michelle Zhou Team Website: Team

What is Speech and Debate? Speech and debate is an academic activity typically available to students in high school and college. Similar to athletic sports, speech and debate activities are challenging, competitive in nature, and require regular practice, coaching, dedication, and hard work. Speech and Debate is usually for people who: Are social Want to share their opinion Are passionate about politics/philosophy/law Want to learn something new

What is Speech and Debate? (cont.) There are two categories of events: debate events and speaking events. We highly recommend that every student participate in at least one debate and one speaking event. Speech and debate opens opportunities for national and international competitions.

Practice Commitment: Thursdays, from 6:00-8:00. Typically 1 hour of debate practice and 1 hour of speech practice. Additional practices are scheduled depending on which events students choose to join. Participation and attendance to practice is a determining factor in choosing which students will attend the New Mexico Speech and Debate State Championship and the New Mexico Speech and Debate Association National Qualifying Tournament.

Tournaments: This year, we will be having a total of 14 in-state tournaments. There are plans for attending a national tournament. (if we have funds and chaperones) Tournaments can run late, which causes them to end later into the evening. Tournament apparel is business professional. Boys: Suit, dress shirt and pants, dress shoes, tie, etc. Girls: Pant-suit, skirt, blouse, dress shoes, etc.

Tournaments: (cont.) Tournaments are hosted by local high schools. One-day tournaments last all day Saturday. Two-day tournaments last Friday afternoon, and all day Saturday. These tournaments run Friday afternoon, pause Friday night, then resume Saturday morning. Some of these will require missing a few hours of school on Friday afternoon. ANY absence related to a Speech and Debate tournament will be excused. We have a team dinner at the conclusion of each tournament.

Why should your student join Speech and Debate? This activity looks amazing on college applications. “State and national award winners have a 22% to 30% higher acceptance rate at top tier colleges and being captain of the debate team improved an applicant’s chances by more than 60% compared with the rest of the pool.” (Professor Minh Luong of Yale Univeristy, Forensics and College Admissions) The friendships created through Speech and Debate will last a lifetime. Speech and Debate develops speaking, communication and presentation skills. We have the highest club GPA and we uphold a high intellectual caliber. The atmosphere is educational and motivational for your student.

Fees: $172 at the beginning of the year OR two $86 installments, each semester. Deadline is November 5 th. This covers: banquet, t-shirt, and in-state travel fees. Event fees are separate; $8 per event. If your student decides to quit, the unused deposit is fully refundable. Students are responsible for refunding drop fees to the team for no-shows or last minute cancellation. Drop fees are typically $20 in addition to the original entry fee.

Parent Commitment: The one thing we need is: PARENTS! We absolutely need parent volunteers for tournaments. When traveling to a tournament, 1 parent = 10 kids. If we have no parents, we can only take 10 kids! This means we need 3 or 4 parents to take everyone on the team. Students are required to provide a chaperon for a minimum of 3 hours. Volunteer chaperons who are not APS employees must complete a background check for APS, which costs $15 and is good for two years. In return the team will pay the tournament fees of one tournament for the student. Volunteers apply on-line:

Parent Commitment: (cont.) The team will send out a monthly newsletter with tournament dates. Chaperons will the team to sign up for volunteer hours. Please Mrs. Schripsema to join the recipient list for this newsletter. Tournaments in Los Alamos, Las Cruces, and Farmington will require volunteer adult drivers to transport up to four students as well as an overnight stay. Fuel and hotel accommodations will be provided by the team. La Cueva hosts a tournament in January, the Cave Classic, that also requires volunteers to judge rounds. Students will need to collect 18 hours of non-parent volunteers for the Cave Classic as well.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

THANK YOU FOR COMING!!!