In Manville High School, there are many clubs for students to join and have fun with. One that is well known within the high school is the Debate Club. The Debate Club is about public speaking, leadership, and skill development to help prepare students for their futures. The club was first established fifteen years ago.
In the club, students prepare for competitions by doing a lot of research, preparing pro and con arguments on both sides and questions for the opposing side, a four minute speech, and a rebuttal for potential future arguments. The current members of the debate club are Jace Brown, Constantine Gorbatuk, Maddox Brown, Dominick Martorano, Dianayvonne Tapia-Tapia, Zariabella Perry, Lauren Camacho, Grace Romero-Done, Zuick Kentt Honor, Chase Petrone, Justin Gavilanes-Diaz, Trey Morris, and Antimo Bucciero. Each member is assigned a Debate and Speech category, which are congress debate, declamation, impromptu speaking, original oratory, and public forum debate.
The Debate coach is Michael Forte, a history teacher at Manville High School. He has been the debate coach for over fifteen years; at first, he decided to become the coach of the club because the subjects he teaches line up with debate very well, with skills such as having to interpret evidence and write arguments. The idea to form the club came from James Horton, an ex-co-teacher with Mr. Forte, where they would often do debates within their classroom, which turned out to be very successful with the students. Both did it for a couple of years until Dr. Horton decided to step down, but this didn’t stop the debate club from continuing, since there were many students who showed interest to participate in Debate.
The Debate Club has won many individual competitions; the next upcoming competitions taking place next year are in February at Freehold and in March at Montville. Manville’s decision of creating the Debate Club had a significant impact for students, since there was positive feedback given in regards to developing a higher level of confidence for themselves.
The benefits that students receive from joining the club are public speaking skills, interpreting different sides of an argument, leadership skills, research skills, and argumentative skills. These benefits help prepare students for the future but also give them more confidence if they decide to join the club; as Mr.Forte stated, “I know students always gain tons of confidence. I’ve seen them go from stuttering, shakingness, and nervousness to winning trophies.” Debate has shown to have a tremendous impact on students’ lives not only in terms of academics and skill building, but also socializing and interacting with others.
If you are interested in joining the club, talk to Mr.Forte. The Debate Club often meets in room 5 on Mondays after school at 3:00 p.m., and they meet for extra days when they have torments.
