Elizabeth Wilson, an upcoming senior at Monticello High School, competed at the National Speech and Debate Tournament held in Birmingham, Alabama. The event is sponsored by the Lincoln Financial Group & the National Forensic League. Wilson is the first Monticello High School student to attend this national level competition.

The Lincoln Financial Group / National Forensic League National Speech & Debate Tournament is the largest academic competition in the world. To attend, students must place among the top competitors at one of 109 District Tournaments. Wilson won first place in Original Oratory at the Arkansas District NFL Tournament.

Qualifiers to the National Tournament compete for more than $200,000 in college scholarships in one of 11 main events—Policy Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Congressional Debate-House, Congressional Debate-Senate, Original Oratory, United States Extemporaneous Speaking, International Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, and Duo Interpretation—as well as seven consolation and supplemental events.

The Tournament marks the capstone of high school speech and debate activities for nearly 120,000 students around the nation. This year, more than 3,000 high school students from 967 high schools and more than 700 middle school students from 91 schools participated in the Tournament, in addition to students from 20 international schools located in countries such as China and Korea.

The National Forensic League is the honor society for middle and high school speech and debate. The nonprofit organization recognizes participation and progress in public speaking and debating activities as a means to meet the Common Core State Standards in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The League empowers students to become effective communicators, ethical individuals, critical thinkers, and leaders in our democratic society. Since 1925, more than 1.4 million students have participated in the League. For more information, visit www.nationalforensicleague.org.

The National Forensic League has run the National Debate & Speech Tournament continuously since 1931 (except for the World War II years) and the National Student Congress since 1938. Events and rules have changed with the growth of the League, but the League’s commitment to honoring the best competitors in the world has remained constant.

Wilson is coached by Debbie Ashcraft and Christy Armbrust.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, June 28th, 2013 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Monticello School News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.