Why Us?

Why Join Irvington Speech & Debate? 

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Speech and Debate is predicated on your ability to argue or take a stance on a topic, and even if you’re not comfortable with this skill yet, attending our sessions regularly will provide you a great deal of learning and advice to do so!

Whether it be in an argumentative situation or just speaking on an issue, Speech & Debate enables you to develop these public speaking skills which can be applied anywhere in your day-to-day interactions. In-class socratics, learning how to deliver effortless presentations, knowing how to speak professionally with teachers, fellow officers in an organization or club, and more!

 

RESEARCH ABILITY

Irvington Speech & Debate offers 3 different debate events (Parliamentary, LD, and Public Forum) and over 15 speech events in 2 main categories (Prepared and Spontaneous). Regardless of which event you compete in, research is key, and will allow you to level up your research skills. 

  • In Parliamentary debate, you are given 20 minutes before each round to prepare a case to debate on for the entire round. As a result, your ability to find information in short periods of time significantly improves, allowing you to apply these skills elsewhere when applicable

  • In Public Forum and LD, topics are released months prior to the tournament, so being able to do in-depth research, and prepare a comprehensive stance on the resolution, will allow you to be prepared, and inherently improve your ability to develop arguments effectively and efficiently

  • In Prepared Speech, competitors will either perform an original or interpreted text, participating in its creation, memorization, and presentation. These events are expressive and passionate, with each speech designed around a singular message or theme that the student can choose, allowing them to gain expertise in an area

  • In Spontaneous Speech, you are given limited prep time and unlimited creative license to respond to a prompt you select. These topics can range from quotes from movies to international affairs, and allow students to build versatile conversational and research skills in a broad range of subjects

COLLEGE APPLICATIONS

As high schoolers, college applications tend to be something students worry about when deciding what clubs to join - We have you covered! Speech and Debate enables you to exercise critical thinking, and has been proven by various sources to help you out in this endeavor:

  • Irvington Speech and Debate alumni have consistently been admitted into prestigious colleges such as Stanford, Harvard, UPenn, Columbia, Yale, MIT, UChic, USC, UC Berkley, UCLA, and more.

  • Wall Street Journal, studying Ivy League Admissions: Just joining Speech and Debate increases your chances of getting into a top college by 4%

  • Professor and Admissions Officer Minh A. Luong at Yale: “In my opinion, there is no better activity that will develop essential academic, professional, and life skills than dedicated involvement in speech and debate.”

 

Registration Links

Join Our Debate Facebook Group!

Join Our Speech Facebook Group!

 Debate Member Registration!