East sophomore Shae Srishti stands in front of the white board in room 228 every Wednesday.  The notes on the board outline what topics they will be discussing during the meeting.

Srishti is a co-president and founder of Speech and Debate club at East along with East sophomore Shrey Rana. Srishti and Rana started the club in early November of the 2024-25 school year. 

“Speech and Debate offers opportunities in competitive public speaking, and debate in a more structured format,” Rana told Spark. “This is through speech events like Original Oratory, Declamation and debate events like Public Forum or Lincoln-Douglas.”

Speech and Debate club is affiliated with the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA). The organization was founded in 1925 to allow students to connect by attending local and national conventions.

Due to how young the team is and the fact that the club started less than four months ago, the team does not always attend the Columbus competitions or the ones held every Saturday.

“We tend to go to local competitions. Sometimes we go to Columbus. And yes, we do go as teams, but the teams are of two, and then whoever is able to compete that Saturday can go,” Srishti told Spark. “We don’t have the money to get a hotel, just transportation is hard.”

Srishti said the best way to practice is for the club to use topics provided by the NSDA, research information about them, and debate the issues surrounding them.

“Sometimes it’s monthly, sometimes it’s one topic for two months, and coaches and students are able to vote for those topics,” said Srishti.

The topic that the club debated at the beginning of the school year was about the United States of America’s aid to Taiwan.

“That was surprisingly interesting, I guess the average person wouldn’t do that much research about a topic like that but because I did, I found it very informative,” East sophomore and club member Raina Ryan told Spark.

In January, they discussed the African Union’s recognition of Somaliland.

“We just do the debate that is chosen by [NSDA], and then that’s what we’d have to compete on as well,” said Srishti.

Rana adds that the best part about this “is that anyone can do Speech and Debate and learn how to be persuasive, build confidence, and think critically.”

Srishti also expands on how the club continues to learn new techniques about debate.

“Now what we do, since everyone knows how debate works, we hone in on the specific topic at hand, we provide arguments that could be made and blogs, which is a rebuttal of another person’s argument,” said Srishti.

The club has focused heavily on debate since their initiation, but first half of the club’s name is “speech”, something that Srishti and Rana look to incorporate as the club membership increases.

“We are looking to actually get members for speech but we don’t have any currently, so everyone is debating,” said Srishti.

Rana, Srishti, and Ryan are also all members of Civic Leaders of America (CLA), formerly known as Junior Statesmen of America (JSA). CLA is also a debate club but offers a different type of debate.

“Everyone in our club does public forum [debating],” said Srishti.  “Which is a type of debate where you have a partner and you’re debating two other people from a different school.”

This is something that had to be taught to all Speech and Debate club members at the start as none of them had any background with that type of debating.

CLA utilizes a more philosophical approach to debating.

“[In CLA] they debate much more casually,” said Srishti. “They have discussions, which is amazing. I love participating in their thought talks.”

Srishti is also an officer for CLA, and encourages students to join both if they are unsure of what debate style they are more comfortable with.

According to Rana, CLA mainly focuses on being politically aware, open discussion, and civic engagement. Although there are debates, the focus is on sharing your ideas in a discussion.

“The main goal of Speech and Debate is to learn how to be persuasive, speak confidently, think on your feet and how to actively listen,” said Rana. “And beyond that, Speech and Debate also offers a platform to win awards by competing in regional, state, and national tournaments.