The St. Cloud State Speech & Debate team took home top honors at the 40th Minnesota State Speech & Debate Championship Tournament on Feb. 17-18 held at Minnesota State University-Mankato, with senior El Julius earning the All-State Award based on overall GPA, competitive speech excellence and community service.
As a team, SCSU took first place in Team Sweepstakes, with five students also placing in the top six in various categories. Students who secured top honors include:
- All-State – El Julius
- 2nd place – Debate Speaker (Julius)
- 3rd place – Debate Speaker (Nirman Karki)
- 3rd place – Debate Team (Brian Welch and Sid Allen)
- 3rd place – Impromptu Speaking (Julius)
- 4th place – Impromptu Speaking (Welch)
- 5th place – Debate Speaker (Welch)
- 6th place – Prose Interpretation (Lilly Rhodes)
- 6th place – Communication Analysis Speaking (Julius)
Other participants from SCSU who also took part in the competition include students Spenser Norling, Sam Bray and Hope Jude.
St. Cloud State Speech & Debate members also attended tournaments at St. Cloud State and one virtual tournament in February. Over the next few weeks, the team will attend the National Online Forensics Tournament on March 20-25 and the National Asynchronous Speech Competition on March 22-25.
Participation in Forensics teaches students important public speaking, research, organizational, leadership, group work, and critical thinking skills. The activity is open to any student in good standing. The St. Cloud State Speech & Debate team is coached by Scott Wells.
St. Cloud State Forensics is one of nearly 200 student organizations at St. Cloud State that provide students with leadership, management, and volunteer service/learning opportunities and which foster an active campus community.
