There’s a humbling quality to the high school speech and debate circuit, an intensity and pressure that can strip away any notions of confidence or arrogance.
Aurora Central High School senior Joseph Soto knows that feeling all too well. The 18-year-old has debated at the state and national levels, and he’s learned that even the most passionate position can easily be deflated.
“Speech and debate has taught me that you may think, ‘I’m the smartest person on this subject in the room.’ At the end of the meet, you think, ‘I am the dumbest person in the room.’ But I think it’s good to have your head deflated on a subject,” Soto said. “Beyond speaking skills, speech and debate gives you the ability to think. Is the other side right, too? Is it strictly black-and-white or is it gray?”
Learning those cognitive skills has served Soto well during his four years at Central. He’s earned honors and accomplishments through the debate club itself, securing a spot last year at the National Forensic League Speech and Debate Competition in Indianapolis. It’s a trip he’ll make for the second time next month, when he takes part in the national trial as a senator in the mock Congress event.
Along with his Central peers, Soto will argue cases and causes that he’s yet to study. Beginning on May 1, the team will have roughly five weeks to get up to speed for a contest that will see students from across the country vying for argumentative victory. Soto and his team will go head to head against top debaters arguing a wide range of social, political and moral issues.
“It’s a spectrum. This year, I’ll have from May 1 to June 10 to prepare for the speeches,” Soto said. “The competition is a lot harder at nationals … Our state is one of the few where students elect the people to nationals. At nationals, the judges pick. It’s a shock, it’s a whole different ball game.”
The national judges make competitors run a gamut of pointed questions and cross-examinations, Soto said, and five weeks of preparation doesn’t ensure any kind of victory. According to Monique Taylor, Soto’s debate coach and a social studies teacher at Central, the national competitions pose an entirely different degree of intensity and detail for the students.
“I think it’s the questioning. The kids don’t only have to make a speech, but they have to answer a series of questions,” Taylor said. “I think it’s more challenging at nationals. When the judges are selecting and the kids don’t have a say, they’ll be a little bit harsher with the questions they ask. They’re more cutthroat.”
That intense competition has served Soto well beyond the halls of Central, the regional contests and even the national trial in Indianapolis. Soto’s time in speech and debate has been a cue for civic participation at the state level – he’s testified at the state Legislature regarding pending legislation like Senate Bill 12-015, aka the ASSET bill. The proposed legislation that passed the state Senate this week would lessen state college tuition for undocumented students living in Colorado.
With plans to attend the University of Colorado Boulder next year and ultimate ambitions for a law degree, those kind of experiences seem like the ideal preparation for a student devoted to activism.
“I’ve also worked pretty closely on civil unions legislation, I’ve worked with the Obama campaign, just trying to get as involved as possible,” Soto said. “A lot of who I am and the skills I have as a speaker come from my experience at Aurora Central.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707