Regents\u2019 Cup<\/a>\u2014a competition, put on by the Arizona Board of Regents, designed for students from all of Arizona\u2019s public universities to engage in rigorous debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFor Lee, who has been interested in communications since her\npre-teen years and always had a knack for arguing, coming to NAU to compete in speech\nand debate has been a long-time goal. But that\u2019s not the case for many of the\nteam\u2019s members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honors College student Denise Ocampo<\/strong>, a junior majoring in biomedical science, was surfing through Instagram one day when a story was posted by Northern Arizona University about the Regents\u2019 Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe was instantly intrigued\u2014speech and debate is something she had\nalways been interested in but never had the opportunity to do. So, she emailed the\nface of the Instagram story, Gretchen Gee<\/strong> (known as Dr. Gee by her\nstudents), principal lecturer in politics and international affairs and coach\nof NAU\u2019s Regents\u2019 Cup team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cNot a lot of people in my field of study think they have to work\non their public speaking and debate skills. \u2018I don\u2019t need that. I\u2019m a biomed\nmajor,\u2019\u201d Ocampo said. \u201cBut it is an important skill everyone can use, no matter\nyour major. I think it will not only help in my communication skills, but in\ninterviews as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Dante Wright<\/strong>, a political science major with plans\nto attend law school after graduation, hopes to use the skills acquired through\nhis involvement in the Regents\u2019 Cup to better prepare him for the courtroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI feel like the Regents\u2019 Cup and the experience of public\nspeaking as a whole will put me on the right career path,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As word about the Regents\u2019 Cup made its way around campus, Gee assembled\nher team. By the end of the spring semester, she had a number of applications from\nstudents interested in being involved. After a difficult interview process, the\nteam came together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of our goals was to make the team as diverse as possible in\nevery single respect: major, ethnicity, background,\u201d Gee said. \u201cWe have a bunch\nof first-gen kids on there, we have kids from outside of Arizona, kids from\ndifferent ethnicities and backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the diversity doesn\u2019t stop there, she said. Her students are\nstudying everything from political science and international affairs to\njournalism, speech language pathology, disability studies and communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order to practice and prepare for the statewide tournament taking\nplace Saturday in Tucson, Gee wanted to schedule a time each week when they\ncould come together and learn how to be good public speakers. Most of the\nstudents on the team had no experience with speech and debate, and this was\ntheir introduction to public speaking. And so, POS 485 was scheduled for 7-10\np.m. every Thursday, and they used every minute of class time to prepare. By\nearning three credit hours for the class, Gee hoped students would take it\nseriously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter spending the first three weeks of class learning to be a\nmore skillful public speaker, we started honing in on the different debate\nstyles,\u201d Gee said. \u201cNow, we use class time as a sort of dress rehearsal to\npractice specific debate styles on the general topics we know will be part of\nthe Regents\u2019 Cup debate: civility and freedom of speech; social media and\npossible regulation of speech; defamation and slander laws; and free speech on\nuniversity campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The topics will appear in four different debate styles: civil dialogue,\nOxford, persuasive story and solutions. The students, who compete in six teams\nof two, won\u2019t know the specific prompt until the day of the competition, so being\nprepared for anything is key. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am really struggling with the persuasive story style,\u201d Lee\nsaid. \u201cI\u2019m a person who likes to be prepared, so being put on the spot with no\nresources whatsoever is a little intimidating for me. The one I\u2019m more\ncomfortable with is the solution style because you are given a prompt of a\ntopic that you\u2019ve prepared on, you just don\u2019t know if you will be for or\nagainst the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though the team met for three hours each week, many spent upwards of 20 hours outside of scheduled meet times to brainstorm, write and rehearse a single speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cOne of my students complained that class wasn\u2019t long enough and\nwe needed more time to prepare as a group,\u201d Gee said with a laugh. \u201cSo, I\nencourage them to practice on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wright runs through his speech anytime he\u2019s in the car and while\nhe works the paint counter at Home Depot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ocampo will run through a speech as many times as it takes for her\nto feel comfortable with the material, often more than 30 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through practice, public speaking, articulating arguments about\nwhich they may not be passionate and learning how to step outside of comfort\nzones, Gee thinks the experience gained from preparing for and competing in this\ncompetition is invaluable. (The participation and prize money earned for\nplacing in the competition doesn\u2019t hurt either. Each student receives a $500\nscholarship for participating. Students who earn third or fourth place will get\na $6,000 scholarship, second place will earn a $12,000 scholarship and the first-place\nteam will earn a whopping $16,000 each to be put toward his or her education.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the most important things I\u2019ve learned through this\nexperience is to have strong but respectful communication skills, and I think\nthat\u2019s what the Regents\u2019 Cup is all about,\u201d Ocampo said. \u201cLearning to be\nrespectful of the opinions of others, seeing the other sides of things and\ndeveloping public speaking and communication skills is something I\u2019ll take with\nme and use throughout my life, both professionally and personally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLearn more about the competition and the students involved in the full-length LumberChats: Inside NAU podcast episode \u201cConquering the Fear of Public Speaking \u2192 The Road to the Regents’ Cup.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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