New Orientation and Debate in CRCF!

It was a busy spring semester for SPEAK! The work continues in CRCF with another crew of volunteers trained and ready to join the classroom. Please join us in welcoming four new members along with some familiar faces. Aside from myself, Maggie Pierce, and Ariel Schuck our new SPEAK volunteers are, from left to right: Gil Salzman, Gavin Alberts, Skye Whalen, and Kitana Hudgens. I would like to thank all of the people that helped make the training possible, including Professor Robert Sands, David Register, Jessica Bullock, and others. The students were well prepared and thankful for the training. As the SPEAK crew grows, more students are excited to be engaged in the work. The seven of us visited the facility weekly to continue to deliver quality debate and public speaking training.

Over this year, SPEAK has worked with 17 people experiencing incarceration, and culminated the efforts in a final debate on the topic of whether neurodivergent/atypical students learn better in separate specialized schools versus being integrated into traditional public schools. The topic was generated by the students and they had a fierce final debate with great arguments on both sides. It was a very close decision with the "Government" or "Proposition" team advocating separate schools that won the debate. The students were very excited after the debate and eager to continue to develop their skills. The semester was filled with moments of joy and struggle, but everyone was dedicated and the work will continue at CRCF as the LDU students are very excited to keep going in!