By Meghan Runte
McNicholas High School’s speech and debate class, taught by English teacher Mr. Dan Freeman, has been growing in popularity since it started in 2024. Sophomores Izzy Payne and Morgan Taleff took the initiative to begin a Speech and Debate Club, focused on sharing the skills they learned through the class.
Freeman said that he was approached by “two sophomore students who took my Speech & Debate I class, and they asked if I’d be willing to help them start the club.” He said the process of starting the club was easy, that they “set a first meeting date and established how often we would be meeting (every other week) and then they got the word out to their friends.”
During club meetings, Freeman said that “students come up with a ‘Hot Take,’ we decide the stances, and conduct a mini-debate composing of an opening statement, body arguments, rebuttals, and a closing statement. Izzy and Morgan run the meetings and after each ‘Hot Take Debate’ feedback is given to each participant.”
“I firmly believe that Speech & Debate is a life skill. Public speaking, no matter what career path you take in life, is an important skill to have,” Freeman stated.
Payne, who came up with the idea to start the club, said that she “wanted to start a club that I could be in charge of, so after I took Speech and Debate and realized there was no club, I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to start one.” She said that anyone is welcome to join the club by showing up at club meetings. When they do show up, Payne will add them into the club group on Schoology.
She added that she loves “spending time with people who are genuinely interested in speech and debate and being able to progress our skills together.”
Co-founder Morgan Taleff said, “I wanted to help start speech and debate club because taking the class helped me immensely to improve my articulation as well as being comfortable with public speaking.” She also wanted to increase inclusivity, sharing “since there are limited spots to take the class, I wanted to give more students the opportunity to gain the confidence in public speaking and learn how to defend their side in a debate.”
Taleff said that she plans to elevate the club by “gaining more members and creating more opportunities for our members such as inviting them to compete in the Rotary Speech Contest.”
The next Speech and Debate Club meeting is planned for March 18 after school in Freeman’s room, Room 47, for students interested in joining.
The McNicholas Milestone 