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AHS Speech and Debate

The Speech and Debate team recently went to California State University Long Beach to compete in the state tournament with 17 AHS students competing in various areas. The competition was from May 3 to 5, and it was the 62nd hosted by The California High School Speech Association (CHSSA). Octofinalists were Olivia Chen and Anabell Xu in Parliamentary Debate; Semi Finalists were Rukan Said in Original Prose and Poetry along within Christian Lowe and Nicholas Huang in Duo Interpretation; Finalists are Sarah Wang who got 6th place in Original Advocacy, Kanchan Kaur in 7th place in Oratorical Interpretation, and finally Andy Li in 6th place in Humorous Interpretation. There were several topics debated or talked about by the contestants, so here’s a quick explanation of each.

An overnight competition like this one is not very common in Speech and Debate with members staying in hotels. Competitors qualified to compete if they placed high enough or got 1st or 2nd in the Fall and Spring varsity. Each team member delivered their speeches and always adjusted their speeches after receiving feedback, and debaters drilled each other to be able to think quickly. The team’s advisor, Ashley Novak, said that “the team did exceptionally well this year, I’m extremely proud.”

Sarah made her speech about the crisis of Asian-American mental health and said that “I felt that I was able to truly captivate my audience with my speech.” In the end, what truly matters to her is that her“ personal success derives from the message I leave the audience with. That is all that sincerely matters.” Congratulations to Speech and Debate for its hard efforts and wins!

Policy Debate has teams of two going against each other, with them arguing about the advantages and disadvantages of passing a policy within the U.S. This is the oldest form of debate, and the topic is always centered around lowering the restriction of immigration. The Parliamentary Debate has teams of two, though they only have 20 minutes to prepare a case and the topics change every round. The Congressional Debate is known for being a lot more hectic, with one competitor versus a room of 12-16 people. The Public Forum Debate is similar to the parliamentary debate, with again, two teams of two debating a variety of topics, though these topics change only monthly with this debate considered the easiest out of the four.

Original Prose and Poetry consists of competitors having ten minutes to give their speech about any topic they wanted. Oratorical Interpretation requires the speaker to choose a ten minute speech that was oratorically given and to perform it in his or her  own way. In Original Advocacy, people write about any topic, though it has to be advocating that a specific part of the government solves an issue. Thematic Interpretation has the people give a variety of speeches relating to them. Duo interpretation has two people act out a speech that is humorous or dramatic, and the humorous interpretation speech has only one person give a humorous speech.