The homepage of the Milpitas Debate Program’s website features the beaming faces of elementary and middle school students, each holding a personalized certificate. These students recently completed the first-ever online summer public speaking course founded and run by a senior at Milpitas High School.
Sixteen-year-old Rachel Wu is founder and director of the Milpitas Debate Program, a student-led group that teaches public speaking at schools throughout the Milpitas Unified School District. She started the program in May 2019, and over the course of the school year she and other high school volunteers taught 100 students public speaking in weekly after-school classes. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Rachel expanded the program to a five-week online summer course, which 300 students participated in.
Once instruction transitioned online in March, Rachel said, she knew the summer would be especially tough on students, particularly those who come from low-income families.
“We thought it was even more crucial than ever to have kids stay engaged with learning and interaction during the summer,” Rachel said. “And in terms of COVID, we knew that kids were kind of starved for interaction, and we thought this would be a really good way to get them used to online learning.”
She and her fellow volunteers created a curriculum, set up a website and began to recruit students. The instructors taught public speaking techniques, methods of persuasion and how to create an argument. Attendees delivered a final speech via video at the end of the summer, and the teachers gave individual feedback to each student. Students who gave exceptional speeches received certificates and got their smiling faces featured on the website.
Rachel herself undertook debate on a bit of a whim. When she was in eighth grade, she met an older girl who told her she could tag along to her high school debate practices and tournaments. She was immediately hooked. She began competing that same year, and in high school became the president of the school’s debate team, coaching some of the more junior members. She has qualified for three national championships and once took sixth place in an international competition.
“I felt like debate was relatively accessible for people like me to do because starting early in debate actually doesn’t make you better,” Rachel said. “I think it’s you that makes you good at debate. So, I thought this was very accessible. I didn’t feel behind.”
Rachel also noticed that debate had the potential to be accessible to students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, as it doesn’t require equipment or as many fees as some other extracurricular activities. “You just need to bring yourself, your mind and your voice,” she said.
She noticed that for younger kids in the district, very few opportunities existed to help them get into public speaking. Debate classes outside of school tended to be very expensive or fairly far away, and she wanted to create a free option for elementary and middle school students. She said she got lucky in middle school because another student reached out and provided her with an opportunity she otherwise wouldn’t have had.
“But that’s not something that happens to everyone,” Rachel said. “People are super intimidated by public speaking because they think it’s something that you’re born with, but I just wanted to show kids through this program that it’s basically like any other skill; it’s something you have to learn.”
In 2019, she began reaching out to elementary and middle school principals in the district to gauge their interest in an after-school debate program. She was able to start the program that fall at four schools in Milpitas, with some of her friends from her debate program helping her teach the weekly classes. With the help of her debate coach, Rachel was able to sign the students up for fun, introductory debate tournaments as well. The group covered the cost of their entry fees through fundraising, so no kids’ families had to pay out of pocket.
She said the program focuses on helping low-income students and young girls who are often underrepresented in debate circles. She noted that a lot of the younger girls tended to be shy, but she did her best to make the space inclusive of everyone. She said having female instructors helps the younger students feel represented and shows them they are also capable of succeeding in debate and public speaking.
“We need that diversity of thought in the future,” Rachel said. “We need to empower them today.”
She said it was tricky at first to introduce some of the students to public speaking, which can often be a daunting task for even the most outgoing kids.
“Some of the kids, especially the younger kids, were really scared or shy, or they just wanted to debate about Roblox or Minecraft,” Rachel said. “But over time, they got to know us and knew that it was a safe place, that no one was going to judge them.”
The program will continue online during the 2020-21 school year, with introductory and advanced classes at https://www.milpitasdebateprogram.org.
