Senior Lauren Pauls doesn’t spend her time on the field or the court. Instead, she competes with wit and knowledge.

“Debate and forensics take up a lot of time. It’s comparable to a sport and a lot of people don’t realize that,” Pauls said. “Tournament weekends are at least 20-hour weekends on the road and competing. It’s a lot of work if you want to be serious about it.”

Pauls has been involved in debate and forensics since her sophomore year.

“Doing Model United Nations in junior high kind of got me hooked on public speaking, so I decided why not try debate because it’s kind of similar,” Pauls said.

Debate and forensics are similar but, in debate, participants have a partner and argue the same topic all year while in forensics, students participate in a wide array of events by themselves.

“I prefer forensics,” Pauls said. “It’s a lot more variety, and people are nicer to each other in forensics because the whole purpose of debate is to rip each other’s throats out, but in forensics you don’t have to directly compete with people in the round and you get to know a lot of people and you make a lot of friends.”

Participating in debate and forensics introduces students to a wide variety of individuals.

“My favorite part is the people,” Pauls said. “Forensics especially is a really odd mix of people from all over, every other activity in the school is somehow represented in debate and forensics, but we all get along and everyone’s crazy, and it’s a big family.”

Pauls is also involved in other activities including orchestra and choir. She participated in the school musical in January, and is a member of Model UN.

Pauls excels in debate and forensics. She has earned more than 30 medals, won LHS novice debater of the year, debater of the year, speaker of the year, and has been a state finalist in oratory the last two years. Last summer, she qualified to the National Forensics League National Tournament in Student Congress and finished in the semi finals, 39th in the nation.

In addition to those awards, Pauls broke a school record sophomore year, and is set to break another this year.

“The record that I broke in debate was the best novice record for speaker points in the negative side of the topic, so it’s pretty specific,” Pauls said. “I had the lowest speaker point average, and lower is better.”

Pauls is currently fourth all time for National Total Forensic League points. The jump to third place is achievable for Pauls, but second and first place are still a ways off and will prove more of a challenge to accomplish.

She has also just recently been named a National Forensics League Academic All-American.

Pauls’ achievements are comparable to records set by Lawrence High debaters up to 20 years ago.

“The records go back as far as the mid ’80’s,” forensics and debate coach Jeff Plinksy said. “To say that she’s one of the all-time greats in high school is absolutely correct.”

Plinsky has coached Pauls for six semesters, so he has had the opportunity to see her grow and improve.

“She was always very smart and very well spoken, but what has really grown in her is the ability to walk into a room and be pretty sure that no matter who else is competing in that room, that shes got a good chance to come out on top, and that confidence bleeds through into her nonverbals,” Plinsky said.

Confidence is an important aspect to participating in debate and forensics. Not only does it help the student, but when the judges notice that confidence, they may start looking for reasons to vote in favor of the student.

“Confidence has a lot of the same psychological effects that it does in basketball or football or track,” Plinsky said. “When your opponent thinks you’re confident, they start doubting themselves.”

To be one of the all time greats, a student also needs a good work ethic, and Pauls has mastered that skill.

“She’s one of those students that’s willing to put in whatever the work is that needs to be done to be good,” Plinsky said.

In addition to a high work ethic, Pauls has other abilities that make her an outstanding competitor.

“She is a very clear communicator,” Plinsky said. “She has the ability to take a complex idea and break it down in such a way that she can communicate it to the average person and get them to understand it, and in doing so she is very good at getting other people to see her point of view.”

Being a skilled communicator is important not only for debate and forensics, but also for college and work environments.

“No matter where you’re working, you’re working with other people and you have to convince them that you have good ideas, and debate and forensics feed right into that,” Plinsky said. “If you look a little closer to the near terms, the research and the speech writing that we do, particularly in debate but in forensics also, is essentially the same thing you do in any field when you do your undergraduate work in college.”

The skills Pauls has picked up from participating in debate and forensics will help her in the future. Currently, Pauls is looking at going to the University of Denver to study international relations.

“I think I’m going to continue doing Model UN there because they don’t have a forensics program, and college debate is a little bit too insane for me,” Pauls said.

Plinsky noted a study done by Emory University. which found that members of the National Forensics League are 19 percent more likely to complete their college degree in four years than other students.

“What that tells us is that debaters and forensics participants are going to college ready,” Plinsky said.