A. High School Impromptu Event Prompts

Round 1 - 8:00am

  1. Speaker 1


    Speaker 1

    "It's in our hands." — Jill Stein 2016

    "We are the ones we've been waiting for." – Barack Obama 2008

    "We are turning the corner." — Herbert Hoover 1932

  2. Speaker 2


    Speaker 2

    "We're all in this together." — Beto O’Rourke 2020

    “Yes we can.” — Barack Obama 2008

    "Tell the Truth!" — Grover Cleveland 1884

  3. Speaker 3


    Speaker 3

    "Our Future Is Now." — Tim Ryan 2020

    "We Can Do Better." — John F. Kennedy 1960

    "We are going to win this war and the peace that follows." – Franklin D. Roosevelt 1944

  4. Speaker 4


    Speaker 4

    "Our best days still lie ahead." — Joe Biden 2020

    "It's Time to Change America." – Bill Clinton 1992

    "Some people talk change, others cause it." – Hubert Humphrey 1968

Round 2 - 9:00am

  1. Speaker 1


    Speaker 1

    "Money can't buy life."

    — Bob Marley, Jamaican musician

    "I knew it! Born in a goddamned hotel room, and dying in a hotel room."

    — Eugene O'Neill, American playwright

    "The drama's over. Applaud."

    — Augustus Caesar, Roman emperor

  2. Speaker 2


    Speaker 2

    "I'm finished. I don't even trust myself."

    — Joseph Stalin

    "I am about to--or I am going to--die; either expression is correct."

    — Dominique Bouhours, French priest and grammarian

    "I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are still truly good at heart..."

    — Anne Frank, German diarist

  3. Speaker 3


    Speaker 3

    "At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves."

    — George Orwell, English author, dying at the age of 46

    “Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!”

    — Karl Marx, political theorist

    "All the damn fool things you do in life you pay for."

    — Édith Piaf, French singer-songwriter

  4. Speaker 4


    Speaker 4

     

    “You can kill my body, but you can't kill my soul. My soul will live forever!”

    — Huey P. Newton, American activist

    "I'm bored with it all."

    — Winston Churchill, prime minister of the United Kingdom

    "Happy."

     

    — Raphael, Italian artist

     

Round 3 - 10:00am

  1. Speaker 1


    Speaker 1

    “When people show you who they are, believe them.” — Maya Angelou

    “I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.” — Anais Nin

    “We are told we must choose — the old or the new. In fact, we must choose both.” — Susan Sontag

  2. Speaker 2


    Speaker 2

    “I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me ‘I love you.’” — Maya Angelou

    “We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.” — Anais Nin

    “I believe that courage is morally neutral. I can well imagine wicked people being brave and good people being timid or afraid.” — Susan Sontag

  3. Speaker 3


    Speaker 3

    “I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.” — Maya Angelou

    “Shame is the lie someone told you about yourself.” — Anais Nin

    “Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking.” — Susan Sontag

  4. Speaker 4


    Speaker 4

    “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

    “Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage.” — Anais Nin

    “So successful has been the camera's role in beautifying the world that photographs, rather than the world, have become the standard of the beautiful.” — Susan Sontag

Round 4 - 11:00am

  1. Speaker 1


    Speaker 1

    “If at first you don’t succeed, lower your standards.” — Tommy Boy

    “We scare because we care.” — Monsters, Inc.

    “Love is a force of nature.” — Brokeback Mountain

  2. Speaker 2


    Speaker 2

    “Whoever wins, we lose.” — Alien vs. Predator

    “Great trilogies come in threes.” — Scary Movie 3

    “There is no gene for the human spirit.” — Gattaca

  3. Speaker 3


    Speaker 3

    “Family isn’t a word. It’s a sentence.” — The Royal Tenenbaums

    “Just because they serve you doesn’t mean they like you.” — Clerks

    “Life is one long insane trip. Some people just have better directions." — Donnie Darko

  4. Speaker 4


    Speaker 4

    “You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” — The Social Network

    “On every street in every city in this country, there is a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.” — Taxi Driver

    “The future is history.” — 12 Monkeys

Elimination Round 1 - 1:00pm

  1. Speaker 1


    Speaker 1

    1. It is estimated that 99% of all species that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct. — New York Times, 2014

    2. 60% of people can’t get through a ten-minute conversation without lying. — University of Massachusetts, 2002

    2% of American voters thought Mitt Romney’s first name was Mittens. — Vanity Fair, 2012

  2. Speaker 2


    Speaker 2

    1. 20% of the songs on Spotify have received zero plays.

     — Forgotify, 2014

    1. 28% of people who work in IT don’t tell their family and friends for fear of being asked for help fixing computers. 

    TEKsystems, 2013

    1. 70% of youth in the juvenile justice system have a diagnosed mental illness.

    The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, 2007

  3. Speaker 3


    Speaker 3

    1. 60% of nursing home residents never have visitors.

    VolunteerGuide, 2013

    1. 75% of Gen Z-ers don’t consider college the only path to a strong education.

    Forbes, 2019

    1. 46% of American adults will experience a mental illness during their lifetime.

    — National Council for Behavioral Health, 2019

  4. Speaker 4


    Speaker 4

    1. As many as 95% of millennials are "not saving adequately" for retirement.

    National Institute on Retirement Security, 2018

    1. 40% of Americans can’t name a single freedom protected by the First Amendment. 

    Freedom Forum Institute, 2018

    1. Five countries make up 60% of worldwide military. 

    Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2018