By Bruce Piekarsa
Staff Writer
The tension in the room was palpable as sophomore Evelyn Lam’s footsteps echoed through the room. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she prepared to present her speech in Arizona at The National Speech and Debate Tournament in June. She spoke clearly and concisely as everybody watched intently, hanging on to every word. All the hours of practice now aided her until she finished, placing top eight.
“My mom asked me to join and initially I never wanted to, but in fifth grade I started getting into politics and activism; I read books and talked to my uncle about it,” Lam said. “Then my friend told me she does debate at this place, and even though she was complaining about it I thought it was interesting and wanted to join.”
Speech and debate competitions contain a multitude of events and categories including impromptu, commentary and dramatic interpretation. Lam competes in the category of congressional debate, where there are 12 to 20 people in one room, and every person models a real legislative body. Participants debate bills or topics formatted as legislation. Then they are given three minutes to speak with one minute of questioning. It’s a mix of speech and debate.
“At first, I had to get comfortable speaking, and a big misconception is that I don’t get nervous because I regularly debate,” Lam said. “Because I liked debating so much, I was able to overcome that fear.”
Anybody is able to join speech and debate, regardless of experience. Those who wish to start typically work with coaches or find a community of other debaters.
“I had a coach for beginning levels with outside academies, although I haven’t been doing it recently,” Lam said. “I also get coaching from really advanced high schoolers or graduates since they have relatively good prices.”
Since the start of Lam’s journey, she’s become the assistant president and speaker pro tempore of the Speech and Debate Club, along with having other achievements and accolades. Speaker pro tempores oversee the advocacy department of JSA, along with assisting to the speaker of the assembly.
“In Speech and Debate she’s speaker pro tempore as a sophomore, and that’s nearly unheard of,” senior JSA President Amir King said. “With her ability to work with people and her effectiveness, you can tell she has a bright future.”
Lam considers speech and debate a place to learn about politics and activism while highlighting youth voices.
“If you are thinking of joining, do it,” Lam said. “There’s not much to lose and it’s been a great experience for me.”
However, the Speech and Debate club is struggling with funding their team. The club has been unable to receive grants to aid their members in the costs of tournament admission prices.
“I really want to build a speech and debate program here at our school,” Lam said. “I think that it’s very undervalued or at least underdeveloped, and it has so much potential to be bigger than it is; other schools have really big programs that go to Nationals every year.”