ISD Students Advance to National Speech and Debate Tournament

Students from William Chrisman High School and Truman High School earned spots in the 2017 National Speech and Debate Tournament. The students secured their positions at Nationals after strong performances at recent qualification tournaments.

Chrisman senior Lacey Harris spent her high school career preparing for Nationals. At the National Tournament, Harris will be among the country’s top debaters in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate category debating one-on-one with another student for approximately 45 minutes.

“It’s all so surreal. With debate being a smaller event, you tend to see a lot of the same people, so getting to go to a national tournament with new competition is definitely something I’m looking forward to,” Harris said.

Chrisman junior Nicolette Bowman advanced to Nationals in the Informative Speaking category where she will deliver a 10-minute speech on a topic of her choice. Competitors in this category write and deliver a speech to educate the audience on a particular topic.

“I am proud of my hard work. This gives me a new experience and will push me to work even harder in the future,” Bowman said.

From Truman, Jaggard Williams qualified in Dramatic Interpretation, Maddie Petentler qualified in the Original Oratory category and Lorinda Ruz qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking. Derek Allgood and Elijah Rojas, along with Petentler and Ruz, qualified in Policy Debate. Truman High School’s National Speech and Debate Association chapter received the Leading Chapter Award.

The 2017 National Speech and Debate Tournament will be held in Birmingham, Alabama from June 18-23.