More than 300 high school students from across the country converged on UNM's campus over the weekend for the 9th annual Lobo Speech and Debate Tournament.
This year's event, the largest in the state, was expanded to include students from five other states, including Georgia, Florida and California, to provide New Mexico students the best experience, said Mario Herrera, the tournament's director.
"New Mexico's public school system is notoriously underfunded, and most of our high schools don't have the option of going out of state to an event like this," Herrera said. "We understand the importance of competitions like this, so we brought the event to them."
The tournament, sponsored by the University's Speech and Debate Society, tested the students' abilities through a variety of events including acting and performing in a competitive setting and debating everything from public policy to philosophy.
"Speaking in front of people is still the No.1 fear in the U.S.," Herrera said. "Not only do speech and debate events test these students' critical thinking skills, they prepare them to succeed in life."
Trey Smith, a member of the Speech and Debate society, said the group sponsored the event in the hope that UNM officials would recognize the importance of speech education in an educational setting and consider reinstating the University's Speech and Debate Club, which had its funding cut in 1999.
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The C&J Department organized the club and had just hired a full-time professor to serve as the adviser of the club when it was disbanded, Smith said.
A group of UNM students has remained interested in the subject in the years since, he said, and had to charter the Speech and Debate Society through ASUNM to organize themselves.
Now that they have done that, Smith said they are reaching out to the University and trying to help them see the benefits of including speech and debate in the UNM community.
"Speech and debate is a subject that holds untold amounts of benefits for college students," Smith said. "Finding a way for our club to reform is very important for the education of many UNM students."
Whatever their motivations, the high school students who participated in the tournament were thankful for having a place to compete against other high schools and for the chance to meet new people.
Sarah Trujillo, a high school senior from Georgia, said the thought of talking in front of a large group of people scares her to death but she participates in her school's speech and debate club because she knows it will benefit her in the long run.
"I know I will be a better person for overcoming this fear," she said. "I know that if I am to succeed in life, I had better learn how to voice my concerns and let people know what I think."
