Two Trinity speech and debate students have reached the national circuit. Senior Pedro Sanchez-Villa and junior Jorge Rojas-Ortega were accepted to compete in the Barkley Forum at Emory University.

The Barkley Forum is an invitation-only national high school debate tournament run by Emory University in which students from all over the United States compete in different forms of debate, among them Lincoln-Douglas debate and public forum debate.

This was the first national-circuit tournament that Rojas-Ortega and Sanchez-Villa have competed in.  They were impressed with the level of competition they encountered.

Sanchez-Villa said, “I came into contact with types of debate that I have never seen before.”

Rojas-Ortega said, “Some forms of debate were different than how they are in Kentucky. I did not expect that.”

The different debate types did not stop the pair from winning two of their six debates. 

Sanchez-Villa joined the speech and debate team when he was a sophomore because a friend thought he would be great at it. He said, “(My friend) invited me because he knew I was very interested in politics.  He took me to one meeting just to show me the ropes, and I really enjoyed it.”

Rojas-Ortega joined the team shortly after moving to Louisville from Mexico.  He said, “I did some public speaking in Mexico, but it is so much different here and so much better.”

Trinity teacher Ms. Amy Zuccaro is the debate team’s coach. Zuccaro joined the faculty in 2009 after teaching five years at Oldham County.  Zuccaro’s efforts as coach earned her a National Speech and Debate Association Coach Degree of Superior Distinction.  Growing up in Nashville, Zuccaro also participated in tournaments as a kid.  While pursuing speech and debate, she also judged tournaments along the way.

Zuccaro had nothing but great things to say about Rojas-Ortega and Sanchez-Villa.  She said, “They are both strong, family-oriented people who care for the people around them and their school.”

To compete in national tournaments requires a great deal of practice.  The speech team meets after school in Zuccaro’s room to practice their speeches for their upcoming competitions.  This is just the beginning of practice for the two.

Rojas-Ortega said, “There is a lot of preparation that goes into a competition.  Pedro and I usually sit down to research the topic.” He said sometimes they spend hours just talking about a topic.  Rojas-Ortega cited some strategies he uses:  “I clear my mind as much as possibly before a competition.  Listening to music helps tremendously when doing this.”

Rojas-Ortega was recently named an Academic All-American with the National Speech and Debate Association.  This award recognizes students who, among other requirements, have earned the degree of superior distinction, have a GPA of 3.7 or higher, and an ACT score of 27 or higher or an SAT total of 2,000 or higher.

Rojas-Ortega said, “Speech takes a lot of dedication. Being recognized for this award is a great feeling.”