Hello Falcons! Are you looking for a fun, flexible, and impressive extra curricular activity? Well look no further than Speech and Debate! In this article, we will explain all the reasons why you should join, how it may affect your everyday life, and how it may improve your future school life.

1. Available from 4th grade up
   1. Speech and Debate is one of the only academic based extra curricular activities that allows fourth grade and up to participate. This allows you to interact with and have fun with all grade levels. It also creates an inclusive environment with amazing opportunities.
2. Helps develop skills for college and adult life
   1. Speech and Debate is based on good public speaking. This can affect many opportunities in the future such as job interviews, meetings with colleagues, and other activities that may have to be done in adult life. 
3. Go to competitions and meet new people
   1. Speech and debate competitions are a great place to make new friends. In the competitions, you may engage in interacting and talking with people from other schools. This can help you create a lifelong relationship with someone you wouldn’t normally meet.
4. High school records
   1. If you do well in the competitions (which is something you will be able to learn), you can receive medals and trophies. This is something you can mention in applications and interviews for high school.  It looks very impressive and can help you with future educational opportunities.
5. T shirts
   1. You can get the opportunity to get a cool t-shirt that is exclusive to Speech and Debate! This can expand your closet by adding one more shirt that you can wear to school. Not many other extra-curriculars do this.
6. There is a wide variety of activities you can participate in.
   1.  Speech and Debate practices include activities like storytelling, poetry, SPAR, and duo. This ensures that you are able to do what you most enjoy.
7. Rewarding
   1. Speech and debate can be hard work. This makes trophies and awards even more rewarding. Place the trophies on your shelf to help build your ego or show them to friends and family. Either way, it makes you feel amazing.
8. Practices are compatible with your schedule
   1. Speech and debate only has one forty minute meeting per week on Wednesday. This is a lot less time than Academic Decathlon and other sports. Also, as long as you are focused and have memorized your speech, you are able to skip a couple of practices for the different responsibilities you may have.
9. We need new members
   1. Our current speech and debate team is lacking a huge number of team mates. We would love for you to join the team to boost spirits and contribute your unique abilities.
10. Public speaking
    1. Public speaking is a skill that can be used multiple times in your life, such as school presentations and class discussions. Speech and Debate is a good opportunity to learn those skills. With our coaches, you can become very good at presenting.

Thank you for reading and we hope to see you at next year’s practices.