Even the smallest events can take lots of planning. Sometimes, many don’t realize or appreciate how much work is put in to ensure everything goes perfectly and smoothly.
For the past few years, FHN has been hosting a speech and debate tournament. Jasmine Dong, one of the vice presidents of the team is a big part of the speech and debate team. She is a sophomore and is involved in many different activities at the school. This is her second year on the speech and debate team.
“I’m involved in mock trial, speech and debate, tennis, FBLA, Deca, AAA and some other stuff,” Dong said.
To many, speech and debate is a good way to bond with others and build strong connections. Dong is very close with the rest of her team; they all help each other become stronger and do well. They are currently working together to hold a tournament at FHN.
“We have to figure out judging, we have to check out rooms that kids can compete in, we have to pick out all the events that we offer and it’s like a really long process, but I feel like, again it just makes our team so much stronger,” Dong said.
The tournament is hosted by FHN and Troy Buchanan High School. FHN is running the speech portion and Troy is hosting the debate portion. The students on the team at FHN are recruiting people to judge and assist with the event.
“We’ve been trying to recruit judges. We’ve also been trying to encourage students from our school to just come and help out with our tournament even if they’re not on the team. You can never have too much help,” Dong said.
The tournament will be held during fall break on Oct. 25, from three to eight P.M. Sivani Kandel is a student who competed in FHN’s tournament last year. She believes that speech and debate has made her become more comfortable with speaking in front of others.
“Everyone was fun to be with and North has a lot of cool people on their team,” Kandel said.
Dong loves being on the speech and debate team and encourages others to join or at least come and help out with the tournament, even if they aren’t on the team.
“I encourage everyone to join speech and debate, it’s really fun,” Dong said. “We try to be as encouraging as possible and it’s nice to have something to do after school just to keep busy and on your feet. Our coaches are amazing, they’re super helpful.”
