The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) is the largest interscholastic speech and debate organization serving middle school and high school students in the United States. It was formed as the National Forensic League in 1925 by Bruno Ernst Jacob.

History

NSDA was founded by Bruno Ernst Jacob, a Ripon College professor, in 1925 as the National Forensic League**.** As a college student, Jacob created a pocket handbook, Suggestions for the Debater, which led to the founding of the organization**.** Mundt served as the organization's national president from 1932 until 1971. The National Forensic League was an honor society that recognized middle and high school students and coaches for participation in speech and debate activities. Students earned merit points for participation and were held to a Code of Honor. The League's name was changed in 2014 to the National Speech and Debate Association and the National Speech & Debate Association's Honor Society. NSDA includes than 140,000 students and 3,900 coaches each year. It has more than 2,000,000 alumni. Its headquarters are located in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Symbols

NSDA's core values or pillars are Equity, Integrity, Respect, Leadership, and Service. After its name change in 2014, the association retained its original insignia, including keys, pins, and seals.

Membership

Members in the National Speech & Debate Association's Honor Society earn points and are recognized by increasing membership degrees, including membership, merit, honor, excellence, distinction, special dinstinction, superior distinction, outstanding distinction, and premiere distinction.

Activities

NSDA provides competitive speech and debate activities, resources, comprehensive training, scholarship opportunities, and advanced recognition to more than 140,000 students and coaches each year. The annual National Speech and Debate Tournament marks the capstone of speech and debate activities for more than 140,000 members across the country. Students must qualify for the National Tournament through their District Tournament. To create standards for national competition, the National Speech and Debate Association defined a number of speech and debate events that are prevalent in the United States that have been adopted by many states.

Speech

Speech involves a presentation by one or two students that is judged against a similar type of presentation by others in a round of competition. There are two general categories of speech events, public address events and interpretive events.

Public Address events

Interpretation events

Debate

Debate involves an individual or a team of students working to effectively convince a judge that their side of a resolution or topic is, as a general principle, more valid. Students in debate come to thoroughly understand both sides of an issue, having researched each extensively, and learn to think critically about every argument that could be made on each side.

Debate events

Notable members

Many NSDA alumni have risen to the pinnacle of their respective fields.