THE OFFICIAL HOME OF
THUNDER SPEECH THEATER & DEBATE
ABOUT TSTDC
The Thunder Speech Theater and Debate Company is dedicated to the art of performance and rhetoric. Our 19 Time Division 1 AIA State Champion and 4 Time School of Excellence Award-Winning organization offers intense training in acting, debate, research and rhetoric, and public speaking, as well as interpersonal communication and teamwork skills. Our students also gain valuable skills needed for high school, college, and the professional world. TSTDC students have been valedictorians, Flinn scholars, and Ivy League graduates. Alumni have gone on to work as professional actors, doctors, lawyers, and for the U.S. government at home and abroad.
TSTDC has won four National School of Outstanding Distinction Awards (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017) given to the top ten overall speech and debate teams in the United States, three National Speech School of Excellence Awards (2008, 2009, 2011), and one National Debate School of Excellence Award (2010). In 2015, Desert Vista won the Senator Karl E. Mundt Trophy, which is awarded to the school with the largest number of cumulative participation points in Congressional Debate at the National Championship Tournament. Students from Desert Vista have reached twenty-three national final rounds in main events and five supplemental event finals, winning the 2012 National Championship in Expository Speaking.
Why Join
Speech & Debate?
Our year-round program offers high school students intensive training in debate, acting, research, rhetoric, and public speaking, as well as the development of the communication and teamwork skills needed for high school, college, and the professional world.
There are many reasons to join our program:
First, speech and debate enables students to succeed in the classroom and the business world, even in the face of tremendous adversity. Students receive effective instruction in communication, presentation, professionalism, interpersonal relationships, and a number of other vitally important realms. Not surprisingly, students who have received speech and debate training go on to become leaders in business, government, science, journalism, and education.
Second, speech and debate teaches students to think. Improvements in critical thinking skills are some of the most commonly documented gains of competitive speech and debate. This is significant because today’s students are bombarded with messaging that is designed to capture their attention and sway their perspectives. Speech and debate education teaches students to be savvy media consumers and critical recipients of the messaging they receive.
Minh Luong, an Assistant Professor in the Ethics, Politics, & Economics Program at Yale University and International Affairs Fellow at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies did a study that showed students who do speech and debate increase their admissions chances by up to 60% to selective colleges and universities. Study after study shows that speech and debate has a profound effect on SAT and ACT scores, GPA and class rank, as well as students' abilities in college and beyond. Jonathan Carr, who was a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics and was a four year member of his speech and debate team, finds that speech and debate is the best investment parents can make in their students lives. John Sexton, President of NYU says that “Those 4 years in debate were the educational foundation of everything I did. And I don’t mean that in some simple form…I’m saying the finest education I got from any of the institutions I attended, the foundation of my mind that I got during those 4 years of competitive policy debate; that is, 90% of the intellectual capacity that I operate with today–Fordham [University] for college, Fordham for the Ph.D., Harvard for law school–all of that is the other 10%.”
Finally, speech and debate gives students a place to belong. Before tolerance was a buzzword, it was the reality in forensics. Our alumni report that they find their niche in forensics, often using the activity as a sanctuary to embrace their individuality, explore their creativity, or discover their potential. Moreover, increases in student respect and tolerance can help mitigate bullying and promote a safe learning environment for all.
We look forward to meeting you, working with you, and learning from you!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!
- The Thunder Speech Theater and Debate Company
