Public speaking has been a thread throughout human history — the only one that, when pulled, had the power to change lives and sway hearts. From Pericles in Ancient Greece to Martin Luther King Jr, the power of speaking up has proved stronger than almost all else.  

That is why we do speech and debate, and why your officers is so passionate in our endeavors for this team.

The ability to articulate what one wants to say, and the ability to say in the right way, is one that will prove to be essential no matter what career path someone chooses. Poise, confidence and eloquence will be rocks for our students to carry on as they grow into adults.  

Our mission is to give our members these rocks, to teach them how to hold on to them, and how to use them. We want to ground our members and ensure that each one gets the comfort, support and education they need to grow as both public speakers and as people. 

Although we know that as one gets better in competitions they tend to grow in confidence, we do not want to simply train our members up for tournaments. We want to teach them how to give a speech, how to act, how to articulate an argument. 

We have seen the effect speech and debate on the majority of our members. Watching dedicated members grow from shy, nervous kids into ones with elegance and confidence has been an honor that the officer team is proud of. We want to stress this fact of speech and debate: trophies and metals wll rust, memories will be forgotten; yet, the skills that EVSD will nurture will stay with each and every one of us. They will be born in EVSD, and will grow as we do, but will stay with us all.  

That is why speech and debate is important. We can boast our team's success, the top-tear colleges our alumni attend, etc. -- but that is not our mission. Our mission is to educate, to nurture and to help our members become prominent members in society. We know they will find their successes along this path of growth. 

Welcome to Evergreen Valley's speech and debate team, one of the best speech and debate programs in the nation; but also one of the best families one could wish for on their 4-year journey throughout high school.  

Sincerely,

Your officer team