The award-winning Central Texas College speech and debate team is a great extracurricular activity for any student to consider, regardless of experience. We are an open student organization whose goal is to help any student with a desire to improve their public speaking and performance skills. As a member of the CTC speech and debate team, you get to develop your writing, researching and speaking skills with the help of a dedicated speech faculty while traveling to campuses throughout the state to compete. Additionally, there are transfer opportunities to university programs, both in-state and out-of-state, that offer scholarship opportunities.

During 2012-13 competitive season, the speech and debate team won numerous honors including two national champions at the Phi Rho Pi national tournament held in Los Angeles, California; more than 10 regional finalists; a state champion; more than a dozen state finalists; and as a team placed second in the state among all community colleges. Many of these students had no prior experience and had only been on the team for that season.

During the current season, we have had five tournament champions, including a state champion in novice poetry. We have traveled to and competed in Houston, San Marcos and Hurst. This semester, we even traveled to Manhattan, Kansas to compete against top 10 universities in that region.

Participating on the speech and debate team allows students to participate in a variety of events including:

• Informative and persuasive speaking
• Dramatic performances of drama, poetry and literature
• Dramatic duo performances of literature
• Parliamentary-style debate
• Impromptu speaking
• Extemporaneous speaking

The Central Texas College Speech Team offers interested students an outstanding opportunity to improve speaking skills. There is NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! We will help you develop your skills! Good speaking skills are an asset for students of any major. By joining in this activity, you will polish your speaking skills and have a lot of fun! We travel around the state competing with both two- and four-year schools. We are a member of Phi Rho Pi, a national honor society for speech competitors in two-year colleges in the United States. We are also a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Forensics Association, the Texas Community College Speech & Theatre Association and the American Forensic Association. We compete in individual events such as informative and persuasive speaking, impromptu speaking, extemporaneous speaking, dramatic interpretation, prose interpretation, poetry interpretation, program oral interpretation and duo interpretation. We are also competitive in parliamentary debate.

Some tournament travel is expected, but Central Texas College graciously covers the cost of registration, lodging and transportation to and from tournaments. Tournaments are fun and often have a friendly atmosphere. They are a great learning experience helping you to improve your personal skill set.


Contact:

Prof. Neal Heatherly

Email: nheatherly@ctcd.edu