Scholarships

The UMHB Speech and Debate Team scholarship is for $1000 per semester. Both semesters will be awarded at once, but scholarships can be prorated at midyear if students are not meeting their responsibilities. To apply for the scholarship, contact Kathy Owens for further instructions. To be eligible for this scholarship in future semesters, you must meet the following criteria and complete the agreement below.

Participation in events

• Scholarship students will enter three events at a minimum at each tournament. If a student qualifies for AFA Nationals in an event, then that event may be dropped but still count as one of the student’s three events since it is customary to drop after qualification in order to allow more students to qualify.
• All events will be memorized by two weeks before the first tournament in the Fall.
• Scholarship students will assist in the procurement of speech topics and interpretation scripts, both for themselves and for other members of the team.
• Scholarship students will write their own introductions for their interpretation pieces.

Attendance at tournaments

• Scholarship students are expected to participate in all tournaments scheduled for that year except Nationals and ARTa (Nationals and ARTa will be options for scholarship students, but are not required to maintain a scholarship.) You may opt out of one tournament weekend per year, but you must give me at least two weeks notice, so that I do not enter you, then have to pay drop fees. Only emergencies will be considered an acceptable excuse for missing a tournament at the last moment.
• I will issue a tournament calendar at the beginning of the Fall semester. That will be the official calendar by which we count absences. If changes are made to the calendar, then students will only be held to the dates issued in the official initial calendar. This calendar will reflect 6-8 tournament weekends for a total of 12-16 tournaments during the year.

Attendance at practices

• Scholarship students will commit to practicing twenty minutes per event per week with me. This is a total of a one-hour commitment of work time with me each week.
• After competition concludes in the Spring semester, we will discontinue meetings unless the student voluntarily wants to work on material for the following year.

Timely notification of changes

• Scholarship students will give me notice ahead of time if they are not able to meet at our scheduled time.
• Scholarship students will give me notice at least two weeks ahead of time if they are not attending a tournament. If a student decides not to attend the event after the opt-out date, then the student will reimburse the UMHB Speech Team for any expenses incurred, including but not limited to airfare, hotel accommodations, entry and late fees, and van rental. If the student does not reimburse the school for these expenses, then the student will not be eligible for a scholarship the following year.

Decorum

• Scholarship students agree to use UMHB-appropriate behavior when representing UMHB, both at tournaments and during travel times.
• Scholarship students will dress appropriately at all times during a competition. This includes staying in suit until after the awards ceremony at each tournament.
• Scholarship students will attend all out-rounds at tournaments. If they are not participating in the out-round, they will go watch.
• Negative comments about fellow competitors may only be discussed in private. These comments should not be voiced during the competition.