Senior Thomas Bruns has been on debate for four years and has accumulated up to 500 National Speech Debate Association (NSDA) points. Bruns hopes to gain 750 points by the end of the year. “It’s pretty hard to get over 100 NSDA points. I think it’s a reasonable goal to get to the next level,” Bruns said.
Thomas Bruns
Senior Thomas Bruns has been on the competitive Speech and Debate team for four years. Bruns is on the varsity team, captain of Public Forum Debate, and does Duo Interpretation.
“Seniors on the team took me under their wing at a really good time. Meeting people on the team and going into competitions made me love it [during] my freshman year. I’ve always wanted to be captain of [Public Forum], so this year I decided to take on that responsibility, which I think was a great choice because we’ve had a lot of great things happening in Public Forum,” Bruns said. “I’ve started doing [Duo Interpretation] with my friend [senior] Katie Jauss, who I brought in to debate. That’s when I got a new passion for debate doing [Duo Interpretation] because I found that I can be more creative and express myself.”
Alongside finding a passion for debate, Bruns found the team helped him gain self-confidence and expect the unexpected of competing.
“[I have learned to accept] that sometimes I can’t control something that may make me do well or not do well, but also being nice to myself and saying ‘okay, there’s nothing you could have done about that. We just have to put that round behind us and go to the next round,’” Bruns said.
At the 2021 Clayton Fall Classic Tournament, Bruns, along with his partner, successfully placed No. 1 in Public Forum and No. 2 in Duo Interpretation even though his partner was new to the debate team.
“We had prepared a lot, but given my partner’s inexperience, some on the team doubted that we would be able to succeed. It showed us that our hard work and preparation paid off in the end,” Bruns said.
Throughout Bruns’ experiences over the years, he found what he learned on the debate team applied to his life outside of the classroom.
“[Debate] gives you so much more confidence. I’ve always been pretty confident. I’ve done public speaking and acting, but debate has helped me to become more articulate and more comfortable talking in front of random people. I feel like I can be more confident when addressing a judge, and that’s carried over to job interviews where I’ve had to sell myself to an employer, early college interviews or college meetings. I see it less as pure competition and now enjoy more of the community aspect of it,” Bruns said.