The National Speech and Debate Association is in relation to the National Forensic League Honor Society, which is a year-round nationwide organization allowing students to improve their performance in speaking and acting. Mr. Nassif, the chapter advisor of the National Forensic League Honor Society at CLHS, welcomes students who are passionate and determined when it comes to speech and debate.

Many people tend to mistake the National Forensic League to be a science-related association, but the term forensic has a whole different meaning to it when used in speech and debate.

“We look at it as forensics is the search for truth and that’s when it comes into speech and debate as searching for the truth of what our particular topic is,” Nassif said.

The honor society participates in many tournaments and competitions which more times than not leads to medals and trophies. Being a part of this organization comes with many benefits.

“The seniors get the right to wear honor society cords and a lot of the time at graduation you’ll see students decked out in these cords from various honor societies,” Nassif said. “There is also a lot of recognition towards the students, especially at the national tournaments.”

According to Mr. Nassif, the honor society is continuously gaining members. Some of the members of the honor society have been practicing their performance for many years, one of which being Antonio Argüelles, the first student in quite some time who is receiving his Distinguished Academic All-American Award, which he has obtained from not only being excellent in the classroom but also in the area of debate.

“He is one of our leaders on the team, he is up here 2-3 times a week after school for practice, and he goes to almost all the tournaments we go to,” Nassif said. “It’s a pretty significant time commitment.”

According to Mr. Nassif, the Honor Society is continuously increasing its will power, performance, and skill as each tournament goes by which usually occur 2-3 weekends a month.

“My goals for the honor society are my goals for the debate team itself, to get bigger and better,” Nassif said. “I’d like us to see more competitive success and I think we’ve done a really good job, especially with covid, of being more cohesive as a team over the last couple of years and I’d like that to continue moving forward.”

The CLHS National Forensic League Honor Society is open to those in debate whom are determined and driven to succeed.