Finding out who you really are is what college is all about. St. Thomas first-year student  plans to help others find their confidence with the new speech and debate team on campus. Marsh fell in love with speech and debate in high school, when it helped her find herself and reach her goals.

“It was a place where I could join other like-minded people and just kind of focus on improving myself and reaching my own goals,” Marsh said.

The team started after Marsh realized that St. Thomas didn’t have a speech and debate aspect to the university, other than public speaking or communication classes taken for a grade.

“(Rather than being in a class) you could just be in a low-pressure environment and improve, and make new friends and build yourself up from there and be the best speaker that you want to be,” Marsh said.

On the team, members will have the option of how intensely they want to apply themselves to public speaking, their speeches and the team.

The first option is to be a general member, where students can come to a couple of practices a semester to get better at public speaking and focus on pieces themselves, rather than preparing for a competition. While a competitive member is required to attend more practices, sign up for competitions and prepare to travel to compete with the team.

“Giving people the option is the most important part. Even if we don’t have anybody going to competitions the first semester, that’s okay,” Marsh said.

The team’s first event was a debate night. Students could debate fun topics against each other and become closer as a team well before the competition season.

“What was nice about it was that since it was small, it was very informal,” Marsh said. “Everyone just got to kind of hang out and kind of goof off.”

St. Thomas second-year student and the team’s vice president, John Bartholet wrote to TommieMedia about his involvement within the team and what he hopes to achieve.

“I am attempting to have engaging practices and activities as well as grow the team,” Bartholet wrote. “The speech and debate club will form a strong, competitive roster of speech and debate students to participate in official competitions.”

The team hopes to keep the team going for a while and to make an impact on the campus of St. Thomas.

“I have faith the speech and debate club will continue to see growth, especially with the fall club fair, and is not going anywhere anytime soon,” Bartholet wrote.

Abby Madsen can be reached at mads3817@stthomas.edu