Armed with only an almanac, half an hour, and the collective might of four other debaters, students race to create a speech for an exhilarating debate round that they would usually have at least triple the time to prepare for.

Participating in parliamentary debate—a type of debate that involves a significant amount of improvisation and reliance on general world knowledge—is enough of a challenge.

However, four debaters from St. Paul Academy and Summit School will not only be participating in parliamentary debate rounds, they will be trying this format of debate for the first time at the 2016 World Schools Debate Invitational in Salt Lake City June 11-15.

The competition will challenge debaters to compete in both planned and impromptu motions, or rounds.

The real challenge for SPA debaters will lie in the rounds that require improvisation.

“[Preliminary debate is] very different from the format I’m used to; I don’t know how well my skills are going to translate into it,” junior Raffi Toghramadjian said.

Toghramadjian’s favorite part of debate is gathering research and preparing for the arguments, because improvisation isn’t really his style.

“The part of debate I like a lot…[is the] the preparation. I’m not the best at coming up with a new argument; it takes me a while to come up with my ideas,” he said.

The students who compete in the World Schools Debate Invitational are chosen by a committee that looks at nominated students from each district in central Minnesota. Each debate coach can nominate up to five students, and the committee chooses based on the number of NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) points they have.

These points are based on the number of debate rounds the student has participated in and the number of rounds they’ve won. Students win extra points by attending nationals or national qualifiers. Along with points, the committee also looks at seniority; the older the student, the more likely it is that they will be selected.

Four out of the five students attending the 2016 USA World Schools Debate Invitational are from SPA. Juniors Sarah Wheaton, Shefali Bijwadia, Kathryn Schmechel and Raffi Toghramadjian are all attending  . Junior Moira McCarthy will also be attending the conference as one of two alternates for the team.  

Junior Sarah Wheaton believes that this conference will  challenge  her skills as a debater.

“[The conference is] going to make us more versatile debaters…[we’ll be] getting practice with thinking on our feet and improvising,” she said.

Working together to learn how to do parliamentary debate competitively will also bring the all-junior team closer together for next year, Wheaton said.

“This has traditionally been something that seniors get to do…Fones really wanted this [the World Schools Debate Invitational] to be an experience that made us a more cohesive team for next year,” she said.

Upper School debate coach Tom Fones has faith in this year’s team’s commitment and abilities.  The set of skills required for parliamentary debate are not ones that SPA debaters spend a whole lot of time working on, but Fones believes that the students attending the invitationals have a high chance of succeeding.

“I am completely confident that they will be well prepared…we haven’t done a lot of work yet, [but] I know them and I know their work ethic…I know they’re excited to go,” he said.

Fones cites audience appeal, confidence, general world knowledge, and sense of humor as aspects of the debate round that matter more in parliamentary debate than in public forum, which is the type of debate SPA students usually do.

“I think it’s more stressful in the moment because the preparation is less important, it’s harder in that sense,” he said.

Wheaton is definitely excited to be in the kind of environment this conference will provide.

“The kind of energy around [the conference], and having so many people there who are so excited to be there — it’s always fun to be someplace where people are the best at what they’re doing,” she said.