The San Diego Mesa Speech and Debate team has an impressive history and has had a phenomenal year.
The team is in its 11th year, having been relaunched in 2001 after a 25-year absence. It is co-directed by Mesa professors, Kim Perigo and Linda Farnan.
In 2013-2014 alone, the team won 26 debate and individual speaking awards in 7 tournaments, competing against both two and four year institutions. They have been given the unique opportunity to travel abroad to five international tournaments since 2008, visiting places such as London, Berlin, Rome, Antwerp, and Paris.
Michelle Bruce, one of the members of this year’s speech and debate team, was the most productive member, winning 10 of 26 speaking awards and compiling six individual speaking awards, three debate wins and one speaker award in debate. At the International Forensics Association tournament, Michelle Bruce and Yazra Holcomb won 5th place. This was a great success for Mesa College being that it was the first time in its history that a female/female debate team has made it into the top five.
When asked what her favorite part of being on the speech and debate team, Bruce emphasized that she loved competing before the judges because it is both scary and exciting. She also elaborated on how she and teammates practiced for tournaments.
“We prepare for matches by debating against one another and reciting our speeches to teammates. This helps us to find our weaknesses and perfect our stage presence,” she explained.
Michelle also encourages students from Mesa College to consider joining the team. She has found that she has learned various skills from being on the team and enjoys the competition that is involved, as well.
“The speech and debate team has given me an opportunity to go to Paris this year. It has also helped me professionally increase interpersonal awareness to communicate more effectively with my coworkers. On a university level it has helped me to improve my grades when I’m writing papers just by following the structure we use for debate. I think the speech and debate team is a great opportunity to grow personally emotionally and intellectually.,” says Michelle with enthusiasm.
The speech and debate team is a great place to learn many new things, acquire debate and public speaking skills, and prepare for future academic endeavors that involve speaking and/or writing. Alumni from the team have gone on to have great success, some of them attending prestigious institutions such as Harvard Law School, Oxford, Cambridge, USC, Berkeley, Columbia, and Brown.
