Debate Club Provides New Opportunities

Below is a student-written article featured in the latest issue of The Tie, Saint Joseph Prep Boston's student newspaper.

By Skylar Coyle '25

ROOM 441 — This year, many students have had the inspiration and determination to start new clubs based on their special interests. Along with this trend, a newly proposed Debate Club was formed by junior, Bella Wright. Bella then invited senior Angela Moreno to help her lead and run the club together.  Mr. Watts is the club moderator.

To get a closer look at what exactly Debate Club at SJP will be like, I had the opportunity to talk to the founding members, Angela and Bella. 

TIE: What is Debate Club? 

Bella ‘24: “Speech and debate is an academic based club designed to encourage students to work on their public speaking skills.” 

TIE: What is the overall goal of having a debate club and what will members gain from being a part of the club? 

Angela ‘23: “The overall goal in the debate club is to allow members of Saint Joseph Prep to grow in their ability with public speaking and extend their knowledge further. We hope that the members gain much experience from this club for any future advocating that they want to do. For example, I want to go into law and politics, so having this experience in speech and debate will hopefully let me gain some experience in talking with other people with different perspectives. Overall, the debate club is a space for everyone who wants to have fun and create a safe environment for people to step out of their shells.”

TIE: What will the debate club bring to the SJP community? 

Bella ‘24: “Debate Club will hopefully bring a sense of comfort to those who want to better themselves at public speaking and gain experience with debating others. Saint Joseph did not previously have a debate team and we had a lot of interested people, meaning that the debate team will be what they were looking for!”

Recently, both Bella and Angela held a cookie fundraiser in an attempt to raise money to cover the membership fee to  join the NSDA. NSDA stands for the National Speech and Debate Association. The mission of NSDA is to be  “a diverse community in which it connects, supports, inspires and empowers students through speech and debate.”

In addition to hosting many local speech and debate events, NSDA also hosts the National Speech and Debate Tournament, which takes place every summer. This year it will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on June 11 to June 16. 

The Debate Club meets on Fridays after school  in Room 441.