Debate:

Debate is one of many clubs that requires a passion for public speaking. 

Every Saturday students from ENHS wake up early to compete in a 5 round tournament, each round being 45 minutes long. At the last tournament, Lucy Sarabia made it to the semi final round. Sarabia competes in the Lincoln Douglass debate category with the topic: China environmental protection vs. economic growth. 

Debate sponsor, Laura Anderson said, “This topic is kind of unusual because Lincoln Douglass topics usually only deal with the United States.” With an unexpected topic, and confidence from the last tournament, Sarabia is ready to compete in another tournament this Saturday. 

Speech:

With dedication, students on the Elkhorn North speech team spend mass amounts of time preparing for competitions almost every weekend until the end of February. 

There are ten members on the speech team, who all give speeches in a variety of categories. They practice every Tuesday with the whole team and have individual times to meet with their head coach Robert Friedman based upon the categories of their speech. Each member can enter into a maximum of two categories in each competition. The teams next competition is on Saturday December 10 in Papillion and will have competitions every Friday and Saturday. 

Freshman Eden Conelly competes in Extemporaneous and this is her first year on the team. As a new member, she has recently learned a lot about speech.  “Speech is something you can get better at really quickly and it really helps with everyday life.  It  helps me talk to teachers and seem more professional and have an understanding of what you are talking about,”  Conelly said.  

Mock Trial:

Mock trial is a club in Elkhorn North where students have the opportunity to experience what it’s like to become a lawyer. The mock trial team’s hard work has paid off as their season comes to a close. Led by social studies teacher Ms. Wilkerson-Peterson, the mock trial team has had a successful season this year. 

“Mock trial is a club where students get to lead a case and compete with different schools. Students get to either be a lawyer or a witness and we have to switch between playing the prosecution and defense,” Senior Sam Hanson said. 

This year, the mock trial team had the opportunity to travel down to the DC County courthouse in downtown Omaha where they competed to “lead a case” with other schools.

With Elkhorn North availing lots of opportunities for students to experience, mock trial is definitely one to look out for!