Plano high school students have banded together to ensure that all students have access to debate competitions, which have been around in American schools for over 100 years, through Be the Light Youth Association, a youth-led nonprofit.
“Our mission is to help promote speech and debate and use it to not only help youth achieve their goals of using their voices, but also to speak for others who can’t,” Co-Executive Director Kate Lee says. “We see that, through the donations we do, causes that may not be social or debate related are still related toward helping our mission of equity.”
The group was founded in 2019 by seven Plano high school students and has grown to host several events and workshops that teach speech and debate skills. Funds raised from these events go toward underserved schools without robust debate programs.
The Be the Light team works with parents, especially those whose first language is not English, of students interested in debate to assist with applying to be a debate or speech judge.
“Oftentimes, tournaments don’t have judges but kids can’t compete unless there’s somebody there to judge them,” Co-Executive Director Sanjana Kumar says.
Students from Plano West, Plano Senior, Jasper and Lovejoy high schools host workshops each semester that provide a consistent classroom environment to teach speech and debate skills. Instructors consist of state and national speech and debate finalists. Students are accepted from any background, however, the group caters to students who come from school districts without robust speech and debate programs.
“All three of [the executive directors] come from Plano West, which is currently ranked [fifth] in Texas and has been ranked [top 100] in the country in terms of speech and debate,” Kumar says. “We are very, very grateful for the funding that our school district gives us because we get to go to our state and national tournaments for free, thanks to our district. But for many schools in Texas, that is not the case, despite the fact that they have equally as passionate and hardworking students.”
Classes, which are $200 for either basic public speaking, advanced public speaking, extemp speaking, debate 1 or competitive debate, are offered at in-person Plano locations in the spring and fall. Summer camps, college seminars and tournaments are sprinkled throughout the year.
For all programs, need-based scholarships are available based on the child’s free or reduced lunch qualification.
