Speech teams compete in several categories like prose, dramatic and humorous.
Along with scholarships for exceptional academic merit or athletic skills, students can receive lucrative college scholarships in other areas like speech and debate. Numerous high schools across Texas and the country have speech and debate teams where students hone their public speaking and debate skills by competing against one another. Students in Texas who wish to continue participating in speech and debate at the collegiate level can find a number of scholarships from various sources.
Associations and Organizations
Scholarships for debate and speech can come from Texas speech associations and organizations, like the scholarships offered by the Texas Forensic Association. Each year in March, the Texas Forensic Association awards one male and one female speech and debate team member with a $500 scholarship, and one male team member and one female member with a $300 scholarship. Scholarships are awarded based on speech and debate team participation, academics, financial need and achievements.
Corporations and Businesses
Andrews Kurth Attorneys, with offices in Dallas and Houston, sponsors the Andrews Kurth Jonathan Day Scholarship, going to the top two high school teams at the Andrews Kurth City Championship Debate Tournament. Started in 2009, the scholarship awards $5,000, or $2,500 a person, to the top team in the tournament and $2,500, or $1,250 per person, to the second place team and scholarship funds must be used toward a college education.
Competitions
Debate and speech students in Texas can also earn scholarships through competitions and tournaments held in the state. At the Guy Yates Invitational held by West Texas A&M University and open to college speech and debate teams in Texas, winning participants receive a $100 Guy Yates Scholarship that can be used at West Texas A&M or for a Texas speech camp. Over 10 Guy Yates Scholarships are given away at the annual tournament held each fall.
Colleges and Universities
Numerous Texas colleges and universities have speech and debate teams as part of their extracurricular activities, and students participating on these teams can earn scholarships. At Trinity University in San Antonio, debate team participants and potential students can apply for the Baker Duncan Scholarship in Debate. Interested students must submit a letter of interest in the debate team, a record of competitions they participated in and a letter of recommendation from a speech coach. Students involved with the forensics team at the University of Texas at El Paso qualify for two scholarships, a university-sponsored scholarship and a Forensic Service Scholarship. Both scholarships' award amounts vary depending on the student's financial need.
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