The Dos Pueblos High School Speech and Debate team was in a flurry of activity at the beginning of March as members prepared for the Tri-County Forensics League State Qualifier, which was held at Valencia High School on March 7 and 8, 2026. Students who placed in the top four had the opportunity to advance to the California High School Speech Association State Championship on April 17.

Throughout the year, any student can sign up for one of the many online and in-person tournaments available, but the major competitions have mostly passed.

The club has returned to its typical regimen of relaxed practices led by advisor Joe Hulsizer.

According to Hulsizer, the club helps to coordinate students for competitions and improve public speaking skills. Meetings are held every Monday and Thursday after school in room H-29, where members spend the sessions working together, strengthening their public speaking and argument skills.

“I like how everyone is friendly,” club member Adam Pocwiradowski (9) said. “I’ve learned lots of public speaking skills, and I’m much less uncomfortable speaking in public now… I haven’t done any competitions yet, [but] I’m working on Lincoln Douglas Debate. It’s a prepared debate style where you debate for 30 minutes.”

During practice, members decide amongst themselves what to focus on. They rehearse debates, play speaking games, or learn from peers and Hulsizer about crafting strong arguments and communicating them effectively.

Competitions offer a wide array of events. For example, in impromptu speaking, students are given seven minutes to brainstorm a speech about a random topic. In dramatic interpretation, students are tasked with presenting a prepared speech, and in the public forum event, teams consisting of two people debate important issues. All events are performed in front of a panel of judges composed of adult volunteers with experience in speech and debate, such as team coaches.

“I started [doing] speech and debate during seventh grade,” club founder Jiyoo Kim-Jung (12) said. “When I came here and started the speech and debate team, it was really great, because we got to go to in-person tournaments. The first tournaments that we went to were at Dunn School. Those are really good tournaments to go to, especially if you’re starting off speech and debate, because you’ll be around people who are also starting it.”

The club gained several new members this year, and Kim-Jung hopes it will continue to grow after she graduates.

“I think speech and debate are really important for people who are interested in it. I’ve seen people in the club just exponentially grow their public speaking skills,” Kim-Jung said. “It’s a skill-building exercise, and obviously, you just have a lot of fun being able to go against people of many different opinions and many different beliefs, and I hope in the future that speech and debate stays an inclusive community where people with different beliefs can just come and express it and be able to debate it without fear.”