Trio of Jackson students competing in state speech/debate/drama competition

Debating the pros and cons of U.S. national security is heady stuff. Doing it against the best debaters in the state is, as Jessica Stearns puts it, like "debate on steroids."

"These kids are very intelligent," said the Jackson High School senior and veteran member of the school's speech/debate/drama team.

Stearns is part of a trio of Jackson seniors who have found their own voices on the competitive stage.

Stearns swept the district-level Lincoln-Douglas debates this year, qualifying for state for the second straight year. While she didn't place at the Missouri State High School Activities Association's 2011 Speech, Debate and Theatre Championship last month, she's taken some valuable lessons that she'll be able to apply next year at St. Louis University, in the school's pre-law scholars program.

"Debate makes you look at both sides of every issue," she said. "I've become a lot more mature, a lot more open-minded."

Perhaps more important, Stearns said she's learned how to win an argument with her dad.

"My dad and I frequently get into these little scuffles and I think I'm always the winner -- he might disagree," she said.

Taylor Poore finished eighth at state in the Humorous Interpretation category, the first Jackson student in four years to go to finals. She said her previous experience in theatrical productions helped her perform the state-level piece, involving different characters, voices and gestures. Competing on the performance side, Poore said, "completely changed" her life.

"I was going to be a lawyer, so I took speech and drama thinking I'd do the debate stuff," she said. "I got in and [it was] totally not for me."

She plans on attending Lindenwood University next year on a theater scholarship, majoring in speech and theater.

The speech team has helped transform Lydia Meece from "shy kid" into a natural speaker. She competed at state in the poetry category, reading from the classic "Spoon River Anthology." She said she channeled her experience in Jackson High School's fall production of "Our Town" into her recitation of the poem, which, like "Our Town," is all about lives lived and stories from the grave.

"I'm not obsessed with dead people, I promise," she said, laughing. "I just think it's a really neat way how people reflect on their lives." Meece plans to attend Cornell College in Iowa, majoring in pre-med and minoring in theater.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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