The Debate Club enters another year of fun debates, agreeing and disagreeing with another about a wide variety of topics while improving their communication and critical thinking skills.
Junior club officer Nora Konen joined to speak her mind and be heard. “I first joined debate freshman year because I wanted to get my ideas out there and also get better at public speaking because I was pretty nervous to put myself out there,” said Konen. “I feel like it’s also helped me with my overall speaking skills and writing because it has taught me different ways to articulate my point of view and also understand other people’s points of view.”
Junior club officer Caitlin Kohn’s reasoning for joining was similar. “I joined Debate Club to meet new people but to also improve my public speaking skills because I felt like in middle school there was a lot I could improve on and it definitely helped me from there,” said Kohn. “Going to debate really strengthened my skills.”
Every Thursday, the club has a 30 minute debate meeting after school in English teacher and advisor Rebecca DelMonico’s room.
“We come up with debate topics; we do some pop culture ones, some more less serious ones but we also do more serious topics,” said Konen. “We also like to do a lot of things that affect the students themselves. We’ve done some things on AI in schools because that is a big issue nowadays and so many people can personally relate to that.”
The club also switches up the format, more formal or less formal, and one side v.s another side.
“The format of our meetings is that we first start out with a sort of lesson or fallacy which you can use throughout the debate today or days in the future, and then after that we have a warm up and a bit of that is ‘I couldn’t disagree more’, which is when you directly play off with the person before and contradict it,” said Kohn. “After that we either do a more serious topic or an unserious topic.”
There hasn’t been a time when figuring out a topic has been difficult.
“There’s always something to debate about,” said DelMonico. “I haven’t had to come up with anything because the student leaders of the club are always in charge of that.”
Over her three years in the club, Konen is taking steps into a leadership role.
“I think it’s just really shown me how important it is to be able to get your voice out there,” said Konen. “I’m so thankful I decided to join this club, I feel like it’s made me a better student, a better speaker, I use the things that I have learned from this club all the time, especially in classes like English, I feel like it’s really been helpful and I think it’s just a really fun environment for anyone who are little nervous to get their voice out there or has maybe wanted to join but hasn’t yet.”
After she joined, Kohn has felt more confident when going up and presenting in class.
“I think joining Debate Club was probably one of the best ideas I made in high school because it’s provided me with so many different opportunities to be able to practice the skills that I have,” said Kohn. “Every time I do a presentation, I feel so much more confident because I know I’m equipped with the skills to handle it.”
Being willing to put yourself out there is why DelMonico believes in the importance of debate.
“Every time you open your mouth, it’s because you want something and why bother expressing it, because you need to get it, you want it, and how are you going to get it, you’re going to use language,” said DelMonico. “I think the students who participate, they end up growing in confidence by the end.”
As the year continues, the club hopes to get more students involved in fun debates.