The Debate Club is working to learn and master the skill of debating by having debates on a wide variety of topics every Monday after school in room A147.
Debate Club was founded by senior Cate Haigh.
According to Haigh, the club gives students “an opportunity to debate.”
Debate Club has multiple benefits for students, other than debating itself.
“It is [a] low commitment [and] looks great on a college application,” Haigh said. “It is so fun. Also, who can say no to free food?”
Some parts of the Debate Club help the members outside of the debating environment.
“One thing is you develop good public speaking skills. You have to think on your feet, and it is training people to think quickly to respond,” Debate Club advisor Tom Moll said. “You have to learn to become a good listener because you have to respond directly to what the other team is saying.”
According to junior Austin Schanz, Debate Club helps to develop skills that help the members in life outside of the debate team. “It taught me how to debate for an argument that I oppose, or something that I really don’t like,” Schanz said.
The Debate Club will soon be holding its first election in the history of the club.
“I know there are at least two, possibly three, students who are interested because it is basically a self-directed club,” Moll said. “I just kind of advise, and step in when I need to, but I believe by the end, it should be probably by the end of April that they’ll have an election.”
The candidates are all members of the Debate Club who are now choosing to try and run for office in the club.
“All three candidates are really popular and well-known in the Debate Club. In order to run, one has to be in the club for at least one year and all of these people have consistently shown up to the debate club,” Haigh said.
There are very few limits as to what can be debated in the debate team, except they avoid “political issues” because they are “very heated,” according to Haigh.
For sophomore Ayden Seydor, Debate Club is a great and fun way to wrap up a Monday afternoon.