On April 5th, 2022, The Cloud planned to surprise Noah Jenkins with a new accomplishment for his senior year. After many days of hiding this secret, Noah was presented with a scholarship from one of the many activities he enjoys doing, Speech & Debate.
Noah has participated in this program for his whole high school year and has left a mark with it. "Speech and Debate, I say this all the time, you don't have to want to be a lawyer, you don't have to want to be," he pauses for a moment, "you know, all your stereotypical speech and debate stuff. It just helps with communication, so I really hope that I'm not the last and that the program continues strong even after I depart from here." Through his way of using persuasive communication and critical thinking, Noah has done wonderous things that the program will never forget to this day.
Because of how good he is, Noah became the first recipient to receive the "Lu Rodriguez Speech and Debate Scholarship" after the passing of the former coach, Mrs. Rodriguez. "I knew her when she was still the coach or sponsor of Speech and Debate while Mrs. Fry was the assistant. Then, around when covid happened, she got sicker from a prior illness and, "he pauses for a moment to clear his throat, "it was sad when she passed away since it was days within the time I won national last year. It was really sad for that to happen because she was the one who motivated me into coming to Speech and Debate. My first day, August 2018, when I walked into her room in the first building, that was the first club I ever joined, and it just became a full circle."
Noah has been surrounded by many others who have supported him the whole way even after many years of trial and error. "My first debate, I remember, it was September 2018, it was terrible. This girl named Katherine was a year ahead of me and she was from Winter Park, and she absolutely demolished me. So basically, I got ready, took a bus down and I remember Mrs. Rodriguez and Mrs. Fry was in the front row as I totally bombed it," he smiles, " I continuously bombed it but, it's not about that, it's about the experience. I got continually better and moved up through it."
After all of the tremendous work he has done, he eventually became captain of the program as he continued to achieve incredible things. "To the newcomers, you're going to fail but it's okay. And if you do good for your first time, it's either you're a prodigy or you got lucky. Don't forget to use your resources. Learn the right information to do well in each category the best to your ability. And you'll know that you actually tried and learned something from it at that point instead of just failing. Just work towards it."
To Noah: You've done such remarkable things. I know you'll continue to shine brighter as time goes on because of how clever you are. You’ve been so dependable, supportive, encouraging, and honest during your time here. Thank you for all the support and goodwill you have shown to me and to the school itself. It will be difficult to fill the void created by your absence. I am really going to miss you. Take care of yourself and make sure you stop by to check up on the website. We'll miss you dearly.
Sincerely, the new editor-in-chief, Emma Tamayo.
