Ivy Zhen

Speech co-heads junior Zaina Khan and senior Grace Nie present the different types of speech events at a meeting. “We work hard to keep informational sections and lectures on basic knowledge as minimal as possible,” Nie said. “We really wanted to focus on collaborative, engaging activities to keep people excited and interested in the club.”

Highlighting the “Speech” in Speech and Debate, Speech event co-head senior Grace Nie and coach Emily Bell discuss the team’s characteristics and initiatives.

Speech was reintroduced in 2022, according to Nie.

“Speech is still relatively new, so it’s been very fulfilling trying to build it from the ground up,” she said. “Turnout has consistently been pretty good, and it’s cool to see our efforts pay off.”

Coach Emily Bell said the team has more than doubled each year for the past three years, building a more collaborative atmosphere.

“We try to give students many different forums for practicing,” Bell said. “They could practice with a teacher, with other students, self-taping, things like that.”

As an example, Nie said the coaches and co-heads gave members 100-word monologues from Disney movies and had them perform the pieces after five minutes of practicing.

“You’re practicing memorization, but also improvisation,” she said. “The performance doesn’t have to be word-for-word, and coming up with things on the spot is a really good ability to have.”

Besides public speaking skills though, both Nie and Bell said the people and community of Speech drew them to the event.

“The speech community is supportive, positive, and creative,” Bell said. “The team attracts a variety of students, whether that be drama students in interpretation events or debate members looking for another venue for their passion through public address.”

“Speech kids will go up to each other after rounds and say things like, ‘This was super interesting,’ or ‘I learned something new listening to you’,” Nie said.

Bell said she agreed, claiming that speech competitions are a bit less “cutthroat” than debate ones.

“You’ll often find students from different schools in the same event chatting and making friends with one another,” she said. “I have many great memories from meets, especially on the long bus rides getting to know students and their lives outside of school.”

“(Speech) is just a really great community,” Nie said. “In terms of people, there’s a lot of variety, but everyone is nice and supportive, no matter what event you’re in.”