College Speech and Debate Team earns medals at nationals

Students bring home multiple medals after strong showing at Phi Rho Pi in April

By: Bruna de Mello, Valley Life Editor

The Valley College Speech and Debate Team stood out at the Phi Rho Pi national forensics competition that took place earlier this year. The team collected four medals, including Valley’s first ever gold medal in the Lincoln-Douglas debate. 

The competition was held in early April in Norfolk, Virginia. Pedram Malekahmadi won gold in the Lincoln-Douglas debate; Emily Merino earned a bronze in Prose Interpretation; and Arpi Danielyan and Amna Shah took home Bronze medals in the International Public Debate Association category.

Emily Merino, film major and bronze medalist in prose interpretation, said she was encouraged to join the team by her public speaking professor.

“I hated public speaking, it was the absolute worst thing in the world. So I took my public speaking class the second semester I was here. After one of the classes, the teacher told me that I was great and I should join the speech and debate team.” Merino says that “believing in yourself is so much of succeeding.”

The  Forensics Team engaged in intense preparation with speech coach Yancy Duncan and debate coach A.J. Moorehead. Moorehead has been coaching the team since 2023, and what stood out for him was the amount of practice and the bond between team members. 

“We are lucky in Southern California that we have a plurality of the two-year schools that are competing at this tournament, so being good at California tournaments equates very highly to being good at nationals,” Moorehead said. “It’s important to simulate those tournament experiences by doing debates. So we would get on Zoom or we would meet in a classroom and the students would debate each other or the students would debate me, and we just sort of gain facility with debate in that way.”

Phi Rho Pi is a non-profit academic organization founded in 1929 committed to increasing knowledge and appreciation of the forensic arts. It is considered one of the oldest forensics institutions in the country. It is a national tournament that's exclusively for two-year colleges and is considered a full-service tournament, which means it offers both individual events and debate events. 

The LAVC Forensics team has a strong legacy at Phi Rho Pi, having attended this tournament since the 1970s. Many members have earned top awards over the years, including becoming tournament champions in 1999, 2008 and 2009. 

The communication department defines students’ work in the Forensics team as consisting of researching topics and preparing for speeches, performances, and debate for competition against other colleges and universities. Most competitions happen in Southern California, with some occasionally requiring travel to other parts of the country. 

The gold medalist Pedram is a political science major and is transferring to UCLA this year. He explains that the Lincoln-Douglas is a one on one debate with certain time constraints that involves a policy debate, with a certain issue that is addressed. Artificial intelligence was the topic that Pedram had to research about for this year's Lincoln Douglas debate. He says he does not want debate to be something intimidating. 

“I think debate has so many different benefits to people’s real world and it is impactful in a way that people don't often think about ...in debate, the things we talk about are things that we believe, and things that we carry with us outside the debate round.”

When it comes to joining the team, Moorehead said:

“It's my personal mission to pursue a lot of people who aren't communication majors because I think that that diversity of thought is what makes it more likely that you'll say something original in a debate argument, or in a prepared speech.”