If you have been listening to announcements during second period, chances are you have heard about junior Natalie Chen and her latest debate wins.
Chen is an avid member of the MHS Speech & Debate Club, but she started on her middle school’s debate team. This year, Chen is the club’s treasurer, and next year, she will be president.
Two years ago, in her freshman year, Chen placed top three at Stanford and top 15 at Berkeley, she said.
“Since last year, I’ve gone to the semifinals at Santa Clara University, and then this year, I’ve had a couple of octofinals and quarterfinals, some advancements as well,” Chen said. ”In speech, I won the Richard D. King speech competition, which is at the state level. Currently, I’m going to compete in the district for the Executive Lions Club, after winning in regional area club and zone.”
With the amount of time she puts into debate, Chen still keeps her motivation in a tight grip.
“[Debate is] a competitive event; other people improving and getting better motivates you to similarly improve yourself,” Chen said. “Since debate relies on research, you get to learn a lot along the way about current events and policy. You can better yourself while also gaining public speaking skills,” she said.
Debate is represented in the media as a really academic thing, Chen said.
“I thought that it would be a good chance to improve my academics, that the public speaking would translate into the classroom and my grades would get better,” she said when asked about her own inspiration for joining debate.
Tournaments that required travel were unfortunately on hold last year, she said.
“In June I will be going to Kentucky for nationals. In my freshman year, when we still [had classes] in person, I competed at Stanford and Berkeley. … I think that was the farthest I went,” Chen said.
Natalie’s favorite event is the speech competitions because they’re really fun, she said.
“[The in-person speech competition] was my first time presenting in front of a crowd of 100,” she said.
Debate has helped Chen in many ways: she became more open and better at public speaking, she said.
“I was pretty shy when I was in middle school, and debate kind of forces you out of your comfort zone and allows you to express yourself better, so I think I gained a lot of confidence. … My skin got a lot thicker because of debate,” she said.
Chen said she has many fond memories from her time in debate.
“I think [my favorite memory in debate] would be hanging out at UC Berkeley. Because there’s so much time in between rounds and competitions, you have a couple hours with your team and with your friends to explore downtown, and I think we all got ice cream sandwiches and boba, and just had a good time,” Chen said.
For those thinking about giving debate a try, you should not listen to rumors about the club or make assumptions about debate, Chen said.
“A lot of people think it’s a lot of commitment and that it’s really difficult, but honestly that’s not really the case. Once you get in the groove, it’s really fun. You meet a lot of cool people, and get to travel all around the nation,so, it’s definitely not only just an academic thing; you can make a lot of friends along the way,” she said.