GREEN Charter Speech and Debate Club representing South Carolina.

South Carolina does not have many middle school Speech and Debate clubs. GREEN Charter is one of these schools. Who do middle schools compete against? High school teams. There are dozens of high school speech and debate teams in South Carolina as well as in neighboring states.

GREEN Charter Middle School Speech and Debate students spend many Saturdays competing against high school students from South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Many of these students go on to compete in the high school national level competition in June. While this might sound unfair and discouraging, this truly gives GREEN Charter students an experience unmatched in most areas.

With guidance, practice, and experience, our students compete against skilled high school students and grow with each tournament. Our students also place in the top six against these students more often than you'd imagine. Placement isn't what is encouraged among our students; what is more important is growth. A student can be in last place in one tournament but can learn to take critique and criticism and learn from the experience. In the next tournament, they are able to implement what they've learned and find that they've placed higher than they did previously.

All year long, our students learn, grow, and improve as people, not just performers. Speech and Debate offers several categories to compete in, so it's easy to find something that is a good fit.

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In June, eight of our veteran students who met the required criteria competed in the National Middle School Speech and Debate competition. This tournament hosted 1,000 students from across the world. Most schools were from the USA, but there were a few teams from other countries as well. South Carolina had only nine students compete in this competition—eight of these were from GREEN Charter.

With maturity, discipline, and sportsmanship, our students showed the experience of competing against high school students. The skill they absorbed from experience and hard work also showed with the fierce talent and holding our own. This tournament was our first national level tournament many of us had ever attended. Two of our students made it to the finals, while all of our students performed at levels that would make any GREEN alumni proud.

The students have learned skills that will follow them for the rest of their lives. Whether it's the confidence to nail a job interview, the leadership skills to succeed in a company, or maybe even the overall skills the future needs—these students all will have a brighter future from what they've gained at GREEN Charter Speech and Debate.