Membership in STAR Forensics will:

1. Give the students ample opportunity to be mentored to develop life skills rather than to develop these skills on their own.

2. Foster personal accountability within an environment of responsibility. Students will learn to set and achieve goals and manage their time; will work as part of a team and club and will learn the fine art of navigating the delicate balance of a partnership. This close “pre-professional” relationship will forge qualities such as (but not limited to) diplomacy, tact, compromise, cooperation and integrity.

3. Train students to listen carefully, with discernment, to a speaker/opponent and teach students to craft a response using reason, logic and truth.

4. Cultivate respect in our students for the podium and equip them to command the podium with grace, confidence and humility.

5. Develop in the students the ability to articulate coherent, succinct responses to questions in an impromptu environment of debate and limited preparation speech events. These life skills will carry over into the student’s personal life in a postive manner during job interviews, college interviews and witnessing opportunites that the Lord may present them with in life.

6. Train students to quickly organize their thoughts and formulate questions, strategies, ideas and arguments as they write down cross-examination questions and formulate arguments in prep time during a debate round. These skills will transfer over in life as the ability to quickly write essays for the PSAT, SAT and ACT tests as well as essays on college applications. This skill also applies to many jobs and ministries as well.

7. Help the students to develop a humble, servant attitude where helping and encouraging others is a priority. Many opportunities will be given for the students to encourage and critique their fellow STAR members. This develops the self-confidence to be friendly to others and take the first step in relationships, whether they are social, work, or academic in nature.

8. Develop within the students a desire for a standard of excellence where the goal is not “winning,” rather the goal is “whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Col 3:17

9. Help the students learn to accept instruction in a safe, loving environment where the students learn to lose graciously and win humbly, recognizing the sovereignty of our wonderful God in all details of our lives. NCFCA speech and debate is a training ground like no other. The Lord has raised up a generation of believers, and within this Christian community is the opportunity for your child to experience the “thrill of victory,” and the “agony of defeat,” the opportunity to succeed... and to fail... in a system of checks and balances, crafted by the Lord to further His purposes and carry out His plan.