There’s
a new and exciting team at Apex High, and it’s perfect for people who are
interested in public speaking. Forensics
team, a group that will compete in speech and debate events, is starting its
first year at Apex. The first competition
for the school took place on Nov. 8 at Cary High. Junior Matt Dershowitz placed sixth in the
impromptu speaking category, bringing home a trophy for the school. Senior Matt Sholtis and junior Daniel Pan
from Apex received an honorable mention in the public forum category. Apex has never had a speech and debate team,
and Wake County would like to have a debate team at every high school. “The
school has never had a speech team before,” says Alexandra Mann, an English
teacher at Apex who advises the team.
“There are a couple of prominent teams in the area and it has been a
goal for the county to have a team in every school. Ms. Hill and Mr. Wight expressed interest in
it.”
There
are different types of events in which to participate. Lincoln-Douglas is a style of debate where two
people argue either the affirmative or the negative of an issue with facts and
logic. Public forum is similar, but it
is done in groups of two. For people who
don’t like debate, there are events in the speech category that are more
creative. Impromptu speaking involves
receiving a random topic, having a few minutes to think about the subject, and
preparing a short speech. There are also
events called interpretations that can be done alone or with a partner. An interpretation involves a performance of
approximately ten minutes of a published play, movie, speech, song, or television
episode. “It’s been a lot of fun so
far,” said Joey Nonnenmacher, a junior at Apex.
“I’ve seen competitions at Cary High, and it seems like a good
time. Right now, I’m preparing for a
duo-interpretation speech event at the upcoming Cary High competition…I saw it
as a good opportunity to get involved with a team and improve on my public
speaking.”
“There
are two avenues, speech and debate.
Speech is all about creativity while debate is more uniform. Debate sets the topic and students all around
the world are informed on the same topic, and there’s a lot of uniformity,”
says Mann. It is common for high schools
to have speech and debate teams, and there is even a National Forensics League
that sets the rules and standards for teams all around the country. Up until now Apex has had a debate club, but
the new team is an important addition. “They
both serve excellent purposes,” says Mann.
“The club is for people with other obligations and it gives them a
chance to get a taste of debate. It’s
more fluid and flexible. Debate team is
also fun, but it has more structure.”
The
team is new to the school, but Mann has big hopes for it. “I would like for it to grow and have
multiple classes. It would be nice if it
was more student run and if more camaraderie developed.” Students are encouraged to look into the team
and join. “(Students) won’t be just
doing it for the project. The skills
that they will learn are universal.
Being informed is so powerful and it gives a student purpose. It can make you enjoy life more.”
