Speech and Debate Team Competes at Yale

On Friday, September 20, members of the Southern Lehigh High School speech and debate team traveled to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut to compete against other students from all over the country.

“Yale is one of the better tournaments in the country,” Mr. David Long, the Speech and Debate coach, said. “Seeing the best competitors in the country and what makes them so successful is beneficial.”

The events that students participated in were original oratory, dramatic interpretation, duo interpretation, extemporaneous, and congress.

Sophomore Naomi Li finished as an octa-finalist with her original oratory. Other students that participated include sophomores Fiona Bultonsheen and Lucy Zhang, and juniors David Kroll and Jake Stattel.

“It was really surprising,” Li said about being an octa-finalist. “It gave me a sense of accomplishment, but also the motivation to do better in other tournaments and to become a better orator.”

The tournament allowed for members to build on their own individual public speaking and debate skills, and also become a stronger team.

“Everybody who went really bonded together,” junior David Kroll said.

The tournament is a valuable experience for the team.

“The kids who competed will be seeing comments and score sheets from the judges,” Mr. Long said.

The students will use the feedback to prepare with other teammates for future tournaments.

About the Contributor

Talia Trackim, Editor-in-Chief

Throughout her four years at Southern Lehigh High School, Talia Trackim has surely established herself as the girl who does it all. She joined the Spotlight staff in her freshman year as a staff reporter, became features editor sophomore year, and has reigned the past two years as editor-in-chief. On top of managing the Spotlight, Talia has also been a member of the speech and debate team for four years, and part of both Scholastic Scrimmage and Teen Counseling for three years. She also co-founded the Literary and Arts Club her sophomore year, and has been leading it ever since. Outside of school, Talia was on the Camelot for Kids Junior Board of Directors, has been a writer for a women’s cultural blog and magazine since her sophomore year, and a part of Her Campus high school ambassador program. Looking back, Talia especially treasures the times she spent with the speech and debate team: waking up at 5 a.m. to compete all over the country, visiting Florida and spending the whole day at the beach instead of watching final speech and debate event rounds (sorry, Mr. Long), freezing to death at Harvard, and playing mafia in the car. Two of her most precious high school memories are when she helped raise over $4000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) her junior year, and when she took part in a Global Nomads program her freshman year that allowed her to video conference with a girls’ school in Afghanistan and a boys’ school in Pakistan once or twice a month for six months. However, newspaper will always hold a special place in Talia’s heart. “I can’t not say that it’s stressful, but it’s also been a really huge part of me and my high school experience,” she said, “and has obviously shaped the career path I’m going down.” Talia will be attend Syracuse University with a dual enrollment in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the College of Arts and Sciences. She plans to major in either Public Relations or Magazine Journalism, and some other kind of liberal arts major that will give her a special expertise in a certain area. In 10 years, she sees herself hopefully working at a nonprofit organization or social good company such as Education First. “Something that I want to do in my career is tell stories about ‘what’ -- for example, what it’s like to live with a mental illness or what it’s like to live in this region of the world or do this and do that,” Talia said. “I think reading those stories and engaging with those experiences with other people is such a valuable tool to tap into people’s empathy and compassion, build bridges, overcome differences, cross barriers, and make change.” Her biggest advice for underclassmen? Just breathe. Everything will be okay. “That sounds so cheesy, but in the last few months, just being accepted into college and knowing what my future is going to look like, I wanna go back in time and slap my past self for stressing myself to death about little things that in the moment seemed so big, but are so small in the grand scheme of things,” Talia said. “Allow things to happen, and allow your experiences to shape you. You are not defined by what other people say about you: you are defined by the decisions that you make, the people that you surround yourself with, and the things that you enjoy.” While Talia’s talent and ingenuity will certainly be missed by all of us here at the Spotlight, we look forward to all of the great things she’ll do, and wish her the best of luck with her future plans! Follow Talia on twitter @taliatwrites

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Speech and Debate Team Competes at Yale