Eloquence Academy extends a formal welcome to Valdosta High School!

Located in Valdosta, Georgia, within the Valdosta City School District, Valdosta High School is a Title 1 public school serving 2,496 students in grades 9 through 12. As the only high school in Valdosta City, minority enrollment stands at 84% and the student body enrollment is diverse. 95% of students identify as socioeconomically disadvantaged, qualify for the free lunch program, and reside in the toughest zip codes within the metropolitan area. However, Valdosta offers a comprehensive curriculum that includes Advanced Placement courses, enrichment opportunities, and extracurricular resources, resulting in a graduation rate of 90%.

The speech and debate club at Valdosta consists of 30 students competing across 18 events. However, besides for an annual event hosted by the school, students must travel four hours to reach Atlanta, where all other regional tournaments are held. Due to the geographic isolation, Valdosta faces its own set of distinct challenges, including longer commute times, heightened costs of travelling and attending events, and high teacher turnover.

Our Debate-Inspired Classrooms program supports the funding or logistical needs of K-12, public, independent, magnet, charter, boarding, and homeschools in developing their own debate programs. As coach Pamela Childress explained, “[because our school is a Title 1 school,] competing is expensive for the students. We seem to be constantly fundraising!” Last week, we issued a microgrant for Valdosta, alleviating the financial burden behind 30 students' travel to the Carrollton Debate Tournament. Additionally, Pamela plans to connect with our team on a bi-weekly basis to discuss fundraising, plans for spending the microgrant, and a preliminary budget for the next school year. Our goal is to offer grants of scaling size and build a long-term relationship with Valdosta students.

We are especially excited to partner with Valdosta as part of our commitment to supporting rural debate.

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Eloquence Academy, Inc. is the world’s largest youth-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing equitable academic debate opportunities for rural and historically underserved students. The Academy has offered live debate programs for 3,600 students, partnerships with 122 schools and nonprofit organizations, and online debate resources for 16,084 students. It has prepared students across all 50 states and 102 countries for college readiness, career engagement, and community impact. Follow on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.