Grace is a passionate teacher with over a decade of experience in public speaking and debate, ready to help students find their voice and shine. A graduate of the University of Utah, she competed with the John R. Park Debate Society while studying communication, anthropology, and Spanish. Upon graduation from the University of Utah, Grace ended her collegiate debate career with more final round appearances during the regular competition season than any other competitor in the team’s 154-year history. Originally from Moab, Utah, she’s now pursuing a Master’s in Biocultural Anthropology and Public Health at East Carolina University, focusing her research on health trends in the Southern U.S.
What sparked your interest in debate, and what was your first experience like?
When I was an 8th grader, one of my friends suggested I come to a debate team to see if it was something I’d be interested in. I was! The meeting was fun, and the team members were very welcoming. My first experience at a debate tournament was exciting. The topic was whether the benefits of genetically modified organisms outweighed the harms. I participated in Public Forum (PF) debate and Original Oratory. My PF partner was one of my best friends at the time. He and I lost by a landslide our first round but the team we went against was very nice and they helped us work on our case to improve it. Everyone was so friendly and happy to be at the tournament. It was a really good time!
Can you share a memorable win or loss from your debating days? What did it teach you?
One memorable experienced happened during a British Parliamentary debate my second year in college. My partner and I had just won a particularly difficult round, and one team resorted to unfair tactics to try and knock us out of the round. Thankfully, the judges noticed, and we were actually the only team from that round to make it to semifinals. We were so excited because we were on track to make it to finals. The semifinal round went great; my partner and I felt confident and we had fellow competitors and friends who told us, from their perspective, we had won the round and should be guaranteed for finals.
In debate, people are usually good about giving honest feedback. We felt confident coming out of the round and were shocked when we did not make it to the final round. It was unfortunate and we were disappointed, but we had an amazing season. That tournament was a tournament I had to attend right after a close friend of mine passed away suddenly, so to even make it to semifinals was something I was proud of.
By not making it to finals, I was able to take some time to decompress and relax, surrounded by my friends doing what we all loved to do, and that was really a healing experience after something so horrible. Rather than being alone to grieve, I was with my friends, fully supported. We had a great time watching the final round and I was finally able to relax after a long, emotionally-taxing weekend. Sometimes, the show must go on and we have to participate in debates when we feel like the world around us is crashing down on us. But if we’re doing debate surrounded by people we cherish, who support us and care about us, and who we likewise support and care about, it makes those dark times easy to navigate.
Debate is very much an outlet, an academic and intellectual space where you have the opportunity to debate with others who feel the same. Debating with friends makes it even more fun. That was a particularly difficult tournament for me. This semifinal round was a bit of a reality check and reminded me, taught me, that a loss is not always a bad thing; you grow and learn and it gives you motivation to win the next round! (We ended up winning the next several tournaments!) Keep pushing forward!
How did you prepare for big competitions, and what advice would you give to current debaters for handling competition stress?
First and foremost, I try not to panic. The worst thing someone can do to themselves right before a big debate tournament is make themselves feel incapable of succeeding. When I was in high school, I struggled to keep myself in a good headspace when I got intimidated. Eventually, I realized I had to stay in a positive mindset because I was just as capable, just as good, as any other debater in the room. This was particularly true when I was competing at the Tournament of Champions, a large national competition. Students in attendance practiced and trained rigorously for years at that competition and I was some kid from a small town in Utah- holding my own against these schools with unlimited resources that were funneled into speech and debate coaches. That alone is a feat.
In college, I had a partner for at least some of the events and I was good friends with him, so being able to talk to him and talk ourselves through any doubts or hesitancies we had was very helpful. In events where I couldn’t do that, like extemporaneous speaking or communication analysis, the only thing you can do is practice ahead of time- and I mean practice a lot. If you’re doing an event that requires memorization, you have to practice. That’s the best way to be confident at tournaments.
How has your perspective on debate changed since you became a teacher?
I now recognize many of the issues my debate coaches used to point out and the strategies they suggested for approaching arguments. My speeches were generally organized, but sometimes I struggled with having clear warrants and using too many impacts at the end of a speech. Teaching debate has allowed me to take a step back and observe the event from the outside looking in instead of the other way around. Working with students of all levels of debate helped me understand, retrospectively, what my coaches worked with me to improve, but I love working with new debaters, or experienced debaters learning a new event. There’s just so much enthusiasm and you can tell when students are really excited about learning a new piece of debate or even a new skill. Being able to watch students work through challenging concepts is so rewarding because I know what those struggles were like and I know what it feels like when you can finally put all of the pieces together and excel!
What’s one thing you wish you knew as a debater that you now know as a teacher?
I wish I had understood the value of organization in debates. I’ve competed in many debates and I’ve judged many debates. The more organized a speaker is, the more likely I am to vote for them in a debate because they make it easy to follow the round and they tell a clear story about what the debate was about. I was usually decent at staying organized, but I don’t think that nearly as much of a priority for high-school debater Grace as it should have been. In college, my organization got much better because judges were very picky about organization but in high school, knowing that organization could make or break a round would’ve helped me do better when I was first starting out. I really struggled with finding an organization I liked and reference quickly. Even into college, my flows changed round by round sometimes depending on how overwhelmed or confident I was with a topic! I did TRY to keep it consistent!