The Speech and Debate Club promotes debate, oratory, and public speaking skills through student participation and competition under the supervision of faculty advisor, Mr. Matthew Kenenitz, one of MMI’s English Instructors.

This past year, two teams of students from the debate club at MMI placed first and fourth in the annual Wilkes University Invitational Forensics Competition.  The tournament hosted more than 25 high schools in the region to compete in six speech categories and three debate events, testing their skills and talents in public speaking, dramatization, literary interpretation, and argumentation and debate.

Placing first for their dramatic duo were students Farrah Qadri and Marianne Virnelson.  Qadri and Virnelson were awarded first place in the category of Duo Interpretation of Literature for their portrayal of Loon Woman by Margaret Hunt, a story of a woman's struggle to become an artist.  Also placing in the category of Duo Interpretation of Literature were Caroline Bandurska and Antonia Diener. Bandurska and Diener were awarded fourth place for their portrayal of Night, Mother by Marsha Norman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a mother and daughter in crisis.