CYPRESS TEXAS — Fifteen students from six CFISD high schools will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Championship, which will be held June 16-21 in Dallas.
Cypress Falls High School sophomore Rajveer Kindra (right) celebrates his qualification to the National Speech and Debate Association National Championship in Lincoln-Douglas Debate with Cypress Falls teacher and debate coach Miranda Fairman.
To qualify for the championships, students had to place as top competitors at regional tournaments held throughout the country this spring. There are approximately 80 schools from the greater Houston area that comprise the East Texas and Space City districts from which CFISD students advanced. Students can advance in a variety of events in the categories of debate, public speaking and literature performance.
Earning the right to participate in this tournament places a student among the best speech and debate contestants in the United States.
Cy-Fair High School junior Nhu Bui will compete at the National Speech and Debate Association National Championship in Informative Speaking, with the competition set for June in Dallas.
CFISD will be represented by students from Cy-Fair, Cypress Creek, Cypress Falls, Cypress Ranch, Cypress Woods and Jersey Village high schools at the national championship, which according to NSDA (http://www.speechanddebate.org/nationals), is one of the largest academic competitions in the world.
NSDA, which also serves as the honor society for speech and debate students, awards winners college scholarships and also recognizes outstanding educators during this summer event.
The students representing CFISD will be:
Congressional Debate
- Ian Cook, Cypress Creek; and
- Ryed Qamar, Cypress Creek.
In Congressional Debate, students participate in a mock legislative session that follows parliamentary procedures similar to the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. They consider a variety of assigned bills and decide whether to pass them into law.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- Katy Aing, Cy-Fair; and
- Rajveer Kindra, Cypress Falls.
In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, students compete individually on topics related to social ethics. This summer’s topic raises the philosophical question of how citizens should appropriately respond when faced with political oppression.
World Schools Debate
- Kavya Sethi, Cy-Fair;
- Elijah Ochoa, Cypress Creek;
- Michael Zhou, Cypress Ranch;
- Angela Zhong, Cypress Woods; and
- Joseph Flores, Jersey Village.
World Schools Debate assigns topics on domestic and international affairs in a more impromptu fashion. Students combine from different schools in their regions to participate on a team, which brings debaters who were sometimes competitors during the year together as they partner to represent their cities at the national championship.
Informative Speaking
- Nhu Bui, Cy-Fair.
Informative Speaking requires students to present a 10-minute memorized speech that they have written on a subject of their choosing. The goal is to educate the audience on a topic of significance, and visual aids are included for this purpose.
Duo Interpretation
- Alyssa Henson and Aliyah Holmes, Cypress Creek; and
- Celena Nguyen and Ashley Siloran, Jersey Village.
Duo Interpretation is an acting event in which partners perform a memorized 10-minute selection from literature of their choice.
Humorous Interpretation
- Miles Burt, Cypress Creek.
Humorous Interpretation highlights solo acting skills as students perform a 10-minute selection of literature appropriate for the genre that they have chosen and memorized.
During the national championship, Cy-Fair High School debate coach Perry Beard will be recognized by the NSDA as a four-time Diamond Award winner at a ceremony celebrating outstanding speech and debate educators. According to NSDA, this is an honor earned by less than one percent of all coaches in the history of the organization.
Cypress Ranch High School junior Michael Zhou will compete at the 2019 National Speech and Debate Association National Championship in World Schools Debate.
“NSDA Nationals represents the biggest stage of competition,” Beard said. “Only three percent of high school speech and debate competitors qualify for Nationals, so the honor of attending is significant. In order to do well, students have to develop presentation skills that are effective for judges from all parts of the country. CFISD has a history of students not only qualifying for Nationals, but also advancing to elimination and final rounds.”
These students are coached by Beard, Dustin Kay at Cypress Creek, Miranda Fairman at Cypress Falls, Julie Bonner at Cypress Ranch, Jacob Koshak at Cypress Woods and Regina Jennings at Jersey Village.
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