As Arysha Maricar, ‘26, steps onto the stage, her mind races with the hurdles she had to overcome to get here, from rallying up parent volunteers to collecting the necessary funds for future contests. Maricar, the president of WHHS’s Speech and Debate Club, is about to perform a speech at the club’s first competition for novices, an event that will have marked a new chapter for the team and a personal victory for her.

Speech and Debate Club is a subdivision of the non-profit organization OSDA (The Ohio Speech & Debate Association), which was established in 1927 with the goal of fostering future ethical leaders with effective and critical communication skills. OSDA hosts training opportunities and competitions for students in Speech and Debate Clubs all across Ohio.

“It was a little confusing at first, but going to that first competition gave us a lot more clarity on what we needed to focus on as a club, as well as what we needed to address and work on with our members,” Maricar said. 

The club, which disbanded before the COVID pandemic, was reinstated this year by Maricar, who sought to lead it with a new perspective. 

“Walnuts Speech and Debate Club has been dead for quite a long time,” Maricar said. “Honestly, starting off was a little bit rough trying to trailblaze and find a way that worked for everybody because the way I pitched my club wasn’t necessarily for people that wanted to compete but for people that wanted to get better at public speaking.”

With the assistance of advisors from other Speech and Debate Clubs across the Greater Miami District, she was able to figure out how to establish WHHS’s own Speech and Debate Club and recruit the club’s leadership.

“By reaching out to other clubs, we were able to find out first how we had to write [our] speech and the different structures to that, [and] how it should be written because there are a bunch of different events within speech and debate,” Maricar said.

Ultimately, they decided to focus on two categories: original oratory and informative speech. Both categories require students to write, memorize and deliver a 10-minute speech, but the original oratory’s purpose is to persuade the audience, while the informative speech seeks to inform the audience about a topic. 

“Next year, we’re hoping to expand to debate and different forms of speech,” Zoe Schnadower, ‘25, the club’s vice president, said. “Since this is our first year, we decided to just do those two.” 

The club meets after school on Wednesdays in Ms. McGarvie’s room, 2309, to work on building oratory skills and conduct dry runs for upcoming competitions.

“We’ve been working hard in our team meetings to write not only good speeches but also to perform them,” Schnadower said. “We had Mr. Scudder come in and give us feedback regarding our delivery, and it’s a team-building exercise where we give positive feedback and things to improve upon for people in the club.” 

The club also faced significant challenges, such as recruiting the necessary number of parent volunteers and raising the funds needed to register and travel to contests. Clubs are required to bring a certain number of parent judges, depending on the number of students competing.

“We’ve been doing a lot of fundraising recently to try to get money for the following years so that we can go to these faraway competitions,” Schnadower said. “A couple of the parents have been willing to judge, but next year we’re going to need a lot more parent volunteers, a lot more organization and getting outside people to help us, both with funding and with judging.”

With their dedication and hard work, Maricar and Schnadower both placed in the top five at a recent competition, with all the other members getting high ratings as well.  

“I think Speech and Debate is a really awesome club because it’s really helping me develop my own writing skills,” Rishi Pampati, ‘27, the club’s secretary, said. “And I get better at public speaking because I have to get used to presenting in front of a lot of people.”

The club not only allows students to foster their writing, but it also creates a strong sense of community.

“I’d highly recommend you join because it’s a really awesome and fun experience,” Pampati said. “I know it might seem intimidating to have to write a 10-minute speech, memorize it and present it, but I can assure you, it’s really fun.”