World Schools Debate-

This is a 3 on 3 debate where competitors debate international topics. This event requires the competitors to speak from a "World Council" point of view that looks out for the best interest of not just one country, but for the whole world. Furthermore, this kind of debate is classified into "impromptu" and "prepared" categories- impromptu topics are given to teams an hour before the debate begins, and the teams have exactly one hour to make a case for their side of the argument. Meanwhile, prepared events are given to teams weeks ahead of time for teams to make their cases. Examples of topics could be climate change, economic issues, or MDC-LDC relations.

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Lincoln Douglas Debate-

A 1 on 1 debate, in which students make arguments based off moral or philosophical topics that change every alternate months. While it is philosophical, the debate is also gradually developing to include more policy making and progressive styled argumentation. Some of this past year's Lincoln-Douglas topics have included nuclear energy, qualified immunity for police officers, and safe spaces in colleges/universities.

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Public Forum Debate-

This is also a 2 on 2 debate where students debate topics based on current events or hot topics that change every month. It is a more traditional type of debate and is most pertinent to issues in the real world. Some of this past year's public forum topics included Plan Colombia, probable cause in schools, military spending and US - Cuban relations. 

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Congressional Debate-

This is a debate where 1 student competes against all other students in a session, that simulates congressional debates in the Legislative Branch of the federal government. Each student in a session represents a senator of a state and debates upon the benefits and disadvantages of a bill or resolution. 

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Original Oratory Speech-

This is a 10-minute speech event where a student recites a memorized speech of a topic of their own choice, for at most 10 minutes. The topic often expresses issues that are unique and relative to the speaker and allow speakers to express their individual identity and beliefs.

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Informative Speech-

This is a 10-minute speech event where a student recites a memorized speech of a topic of their own choice, but the difference from Oratory Speech is that this topic is more informative rather than persuasive. The topic expresses ideas of any concept of the student's choice without the speaker having to give their own personal expression/identity/beliefs.

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Extemporaneous Speech-

This is also a speech event where students deliver an off the cuff 7 minute speech about current events and hot topics of which are important in society at the time. Students go into the preparation room, draw 3 topics in TFA and 5 in UIL. All topics are formatted as a question, and the competitor chooses the one they wish to speak on. They then have 30 minutes to prepare their speech, without using wifi. At the end of the 30 minutes, they go to their speaking room and deliver the speech without using notes. In TFA, the 2 extemporaneous divisions are domestic and foreign, but in UIL, the 2 extemporaneous divisions are Persuasive and Informative.

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Program Oral Interpretation (POI)-

This event comprises of a 10-minute oral interpretation that comprises of a speaker reciting a scene from a play, a piece of poetry, or a piece of prose and applying it to a thematic understanding. The use of excellent performance technique

 makes competitors and the theme of their scene stand out.

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Humorous Interpretation (HI)-

Similar to POI, this is also an interpretation event. The goal of the speaker is to make their piece as funny as possible, all the while sticking to the same recitation rules.

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Dramatic Interpretation (DI)-

Another interpretation event. This is very similar to POI, but it aims to more often have a serious "dramatic" understanding behind it.