The Richmond Forum Speech & Debate Initiative (RFSDI) is proud to join the millions of students, teachers, and alumni in celebrating National Speech and Debate Education Day. Celebrated on the first Friday of March every year, the day aims to highlight the positive impact of speech and debate activities on students, schools, and communities not only in the Richmond region but also nationwide. We want to take this day to show just how pivotal speech and debate has been to Richmond, the incredible work happening at RFSDI and Richmond-area schools, and what the future holds as we rally support for this ever-crucial skill and student activity.
The benefits of a speech and debate to build self-confidence, public speaking skills, critical thinking and writing, and considering diverse perspectives are self-evident, and that plays out in data measuring student outcomes for speech and debate students versus their counterparts. While only 50 percent of high school students in urban schools graduate, 90 percent of urban high school debaters graduate. High School speech and debate competitors, on average, overperform their peers in reading and writing by up to 25%. Nearly 98% of all high school debaters go to college, and up to 20% of high school debaters earn PhDs.
Just last year, RFSDI graduating seniors have gone on to Hampden Sydney, MIT, Virginia Tech, University of Richmond, CalTech, University of Virginia, VCU, George Washington University, Davidson College, Longwood, the College of William & Mary, and more. At the Richmond Forum, our goal is to empower local voices so Richmond can lead. We are tooling the next generation of Richmond leaders with the confidence, curiosity, critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills to take up the mantle of leadership and elevate public discourse throughout our community.
We have widened our services for students and schools and hit a number of key goals thanks to the generosity of our supporters. In June, 2021, The Richmond region had 35 student teams in both speech & debate compete at the NSDA National Tournament. We also successfully hosted the ‘21-’22 RFSDI Tournament circuit thanks to the generous support of Capital One. The circuit engaged over 280 students from 20 schools throughout the region, including over 170 through our virtual scrimmages, alone. We also continued our team grant program, providing up to $2000 per Speech or Debate team for each school to cover competition expenses, hiring judges, and more.
“I truly appreciate the support of The Richmond Forum,” said Angela Moore, the George Wythe High School Forensics coach. “Because of their sponsorship, it has lightened my load of trying to locate funds to allow the team to participate in various oratorical competitions. The team’s speaking skills have truly blossomed, and they feel confident while competing.”
We also expanded our team to include a new full-time hire, Mason Davenport, whose previous debate coaching and competition experience has proven invaluable in his role as speech & debate initiative coordinator. This team growth has also meant we have expanded our capacity to include offering Debate Across the Curriculum pedagogical workshops for Richmond area schools. And, we are incredibly excited to announce that we are forging new partnerships in higher education, including facilitating the creation of a speech and debate team at Virginia Union University, in conjunction with the National HBCU Speech and Debate Association.
This year has brought with it plenty of challenges: snow day event cancellations, the Omicron-variant COVID-19 surge, and rapidly shifting school health protocols have complicated after-school activities participation, generally, and our program has not been immune to that. However; RFSDI has persevered, maintaining student engagement and expanding our school partnerships to include 26 middle and high schools in the region, as well as grow our volunteer base by 40 percent. If you’re interested in joining our volunteers list, please fill out this form.
As we look to the future, RFSDI remains committed to our central goal of expanding speech and debate program access even as we grow our support services for teachers and students. With supporter’s generous contributions, we plan to once again host, in partnership with the Richmond Debate Institute, a summer debate day camp for middle and high school students. And, in partnership with the National HBCU Speech & Debate Association, we will offer a Richmond region-first Speech & Debate coaches’ training professional development program. We will continue to innovate and implement new programs to support students and teachers and platforms for them to hone their skills.
So, as we reflect on how far we have come, where we are, and what we hope to achieve on this National Speech & Debate Education Day, we want to finally say thank you. Thank you to all the donors and volunteers who make our program possible. Thank you to the Richmond Forum and our board for committing to growing the depth and breadth of our support in advancing debate and rhetorical skills throughout our region. And, most of all, thank you to the students and teachers who compete, learn, teach, and grow. It is your courage to engage with controversial ideas, your tenacity to weather the changing world around us, and your commitment to the power and importance of rhetoric in a pluralist democracy that inspires us to continue our work. This day—National Speech & Education Day—is most for you. Thank you.