Research, critical thinking, and a willingness to communicate are all you need to be part of the new EHHS debate team club.
On March 5th, 2025, EHHS junior Mei Shnan officially started the first EHHS debate team. Unfortunately, Mei Shnan will be leaving her leadership position to Arriella Guadalupe and Diana Melnyk and saying goodbye to the EHHS community. Because of their strong leadership skills, Arriella and Diana can direct their new team down a successful path.
The debate team club is all about learning, making mistakes, speaking out, and sculpting our students into young adults who will be able to take on real-world challenges in the future and form amazing opportunities for themselves and their school. Arriella and Diana will now come together to help the team reach its peak.
Starting off with a simple joke between two friends, Mei Shnan took the time to brainstorm and build the debate team just the way she dreamed of it to be. Mei spent time recruiting students who would be interested in the club, “I asked around, and a lot of people were interested in the club.” Mei’s goal was to allow others to be able to speak out and train themselves to debate other participants in something they had grown passionate about. She first needed to find a teacher advisor. Mr. Mark Tolla, EHHS social studies teacher and a retired wrestling coach had some more free time while not coaching this season. Mei shared, “After he agreed, I made an appointment with Mr. DeNuzzo to get his approval, and everything went smoothly.”
Though, just like any good team there are rules set to keep the team clean and organized. In a debate team, you are constantly going against friends and new people. The most important rule is to have respectful conduct, which means no cursing, no inappropriate language, and don’t interrupt those who are stating their opinion on the matter. Another part of the debate club is that everyone’s opinions are heard and valid. Each team will be made up of six people on each team, don’t worry if you’re not assigned to a team you play the most important role as the judge.
All debaters must always be prepared with research. Tolla says it best, “Lots of people think the debate is about just expressing your opinion, and it is, but it’s got to be, it’s got to be backed up by evidence and research.” The one thing you never want to do is go in with an opinion-based argument, otherwise it’s too easy to shut down.
If you have mixed feelings about the team and whether or not anything can be accomplished, junior Elijiah Dunaj says, “The debate club offers me a chance to improve several skills that are useful in college and the workforce. Communication, arguing, problem-solving, and teamwork.” Not only can you accomplish so much but you also have the chance to meet many brilliant minds. You can take the time to learn how to build an unbreakable argument by joining the EHHS debate team and seeing how far words can reach.
