Catching Up With Competitors
Let’s talk about it:
In this program, there tends to be a veil of isolation for new competitors, and the importance of having a community in Speech and Debate is often understated. We sit in each other's rounds and watch incredible performances. We smile and nod to each other in the hallways of a random high school. We occasionally follow each other on social media. But is that where our community should end?
And according to Catching Up With Competitors, the answer is a resounding no. Pioneered by Caitlin William, the goal of this organization is to promote a community that transcends the rooms we go into for rounds.
From the live streams on their Instagram platform, competitors are immersed into the world of Speech and Debate through a different lens: one of guidance. Catching Up With Competitors is unique in the way they host these live streams with notable alumni and participants, who have incredible experience and are willing to relay experience, advice, and conversation with C.U.W.C.’s followers.
Additionally, C.U.W.C serves as a community-building space with workshops, such as the Night Before NIETOC, where performances are held and available to all competitors across the internet. There’s no reason why such a helpful tool doesn’t deserve more traction and emphasis as it is a pillar for most members of the speech community.
Catching Up With Competitors, currently run by Nasim Aleem and Mariam Kolley, is available to users on Instagram and is here to leave a positive impact on the speech community.
Check them out here on Instagram, and look below for our Interview with the current facilitators of the program! Transcript Available.
Check out our interview with the current facilitators of Catching Up With Competitors!
Transcript Available Below
“It’s like the community that has been created, and the support system, and the kindness that you’ve been able to get, and being able to connect with people all over the nation, it’s absolutely insane.”
“I feel like this [platform of Catching Up With Competitors] has inspired me so much to just grow and I hope other people take that too. ”
Joshua: Welcome back to A Seat At The Table you all, and today I’m here with:
Mariam: Mariam Kolley from Florida, on the Western High School Speech and Debate team. Go wildcats
Nasim: And I’m Nasim Alim. I’m from Jersey Village High School.
Joshua: Texas represent!! Alright so now that we introduced y’all I’m just gonna ask some questions like how did you get into speech? Did y'all start in middle school? High School?
Mariam: I can go first. I started in high school, my freshman year. I started doing it cause I actually didn’t want to do it all. I wanted to do like art, or something, but my mom forced my sister to do it, and then my sister forced me to do it. So I was like oh my gosh my entire year I wanted to quit, but I was actually like you know what let me keep going, and here I am, chronically debating. Yeah
Nasim: For me, I want to say I started in middle school, but like I'm not like the rest of the middle school people who were like national finalists in middle school in middle school. Like that wasn’t me. I went to one or two speech tournaments but to me it was like theater basically, and then I really like joined my speech team, my sophomore year cause like really I had no idea what speech and debate was, I thought these were just like regular theater tournaments, and I was like oh it’s the exact same thing I was doing. So like, I basically evolved from doing like prose middle school pieces to like dramatic interpretation and then POI is now my main event.
Joshua: And if y'all don’t mind me asking, like what events do y’all enjoy most, and like what has been the highlight of your season so far.
Mariam: Well POI is my baby, I started POI like I don’t know, I’m very impartial to POI. I also did dabble in Duo [Interpretation] for a little bit. Duo is the sickest event in the world like it is so fun to watch, it is so fun to do, and no matter what I’m always gonna be an interp girl, any interp event, I’m gonna watch it, I’m gonna put it up here over all the other events, sorry guys but yeah that’s def my answer.
Nasim: For me, I ean again POI is definitely my girly, like this year, I would say like the highlight is like so far going to UT, getting third place you know, we have Harvard, hopefully we succeed there, but imma have to agree with Mariam when I say duo is like the superior event. Because even at NSDA like all the other events like, people will come but for Duo the room is PACKED like everyone is there for Duo and like I just feel like you have so many more like advances in duo, like you’re able to be so much more creative with your blocking and like voices, and just like combining two people together. Like why don’t we have more duo events like? We should have Duo OO, Duo Info.
Mariam: You know we used to have group interp and then they got rid of it right? Girl, they had group interp, they had group interp and they got rid of it like I think my junior- no not my junior year, my freshman year they got rid of it. Our freshman year!
Joshua: I’m gonna write womp womp in the transcript. I don't know- I don’t get it how interpers do it bro. Like I love public speaking, Lord help me. I don't know what made me wanna write a POI. Oh my- no I couldn’t do it yall. I couldn’t, I couldn’t.
Mariam: First time is def hard, I will say, the first time is difficult.
Joshua: I should not be doing it in my last year, like I don’t know what possessed me but, aside from that now that we’ve gotten to more about your events and stuff, I wanna ask more about like Catching up with competitors so I wanna know like why do you feel such a resource is necessary in this community?
Mariam: When Caitlin asked me and Nasim to like come into this, it was like a no-brainer for me just because I knew with her like when it was her era, it was so like, to be on CUWC felt like such a privilege to be like around that and like experience this beautiful community of people from all over the nation and like I feel like in your rounds yes you get to talk to people but you don’t get to see them in depth the way CUWC exposes you to people and exposes you to stories and like being-given to opportunity to interview people like I had like the biggest debate crushes on I was like “Oh my gosh, these people are the coolest people in the world.” And being able to like talk to them, get to know their background and get to see not only just like their story and like their drive and their like strategic-ness, but the humanity inside of them as well like, how beautiful a people they are, and I feel like this is such a place, and it’s such like a sanctuary for people who are all like-minded who want to change the world, who want to hear stories, who want just- it’s such a beautiful thing, it’s just like I needed, I need to be a part of it, and I’m so glad I was given the opportunity to. For sure.
Nasim: Yeah, I think- what I want to add to that is like, we see those people on the stage, and we almost like don’t even think of them as like real people, and I feel like Catching Up gave us the opportunity to like seem them as what they are, like, real people you know? Real stories, and like that these people don’t just spawn out of nowhere and I feel like it gives so much hope for like the new girlies, and the event that it’s like - no like these people like actually worked for their spot, they didn’t just you know like have like a coach that like gave them their piece, and like that was the end. Like no, they spent hours upon hours working and really perfecting their craft and like I feel like at least through Catching Up for me, I have learned so much about like how much work like goes into speech and debate, and the real like art like of creating story and being able to share that with people.
Mariam: Yes!
Joshua: That’s real honestly. And one of my friends had recommended me to the account when I had joined junior year, but I didn’t really know what’s going on first year, like I was still writing stuff, and so I got more into it the first semester of senior year right and I was wondering like, they an instagram live? Like why of all the things, why was it instagram? Like, [Instagram] lives that did it.
Nasim: Honestly, I don’t know …I don’t know what started the instagram. Like I don’t really know but, to me I feel like, who’s gonna be like catching in for a zoom call, you know what I mean? Like I feel like seeing the live pop up on your like feed and being like “ oh, that’s catching up,” like I feel like it just adds like a personal level to it, because like I feel like we’re so used to having to search up like NSDA.com to look for those like final round videos, or like having to you know, join the NSDA like zoom meetings that they’re doing now for like us as competitors. But like just having a live stream that’s like so casual, it like allows us to us as members to be able to together in a way that’s like not so formal cause like I loves speech and debate, and I love being able to dress up, and have that professional like persona because I feel like it is important to your personal development, but like connecting through friendships and like genuine connections is also important. And I feel like what’s a better place to do that, than on instagram?
Mariam: So true. I think, if I had to delve into Caitlin’s mind, ‘cause she’s very smart, when she’s thinking about this stuff, it’s like- Instagram is so accessible to everybody, you know? It’s like everybody our age has Instagram. And a lot of people that are able to like go to these travel tournaments, and like were able to really see where they’re placing stuff, have like access to instagram. And even if you’re not, even if - you can like - there’s so many kids these days that have instagram so the accessibility is definitely like a huge, huge part of it probably. And just being able to like - exactly just like casual thing like, I feel like if it were like constantly like zoom calls, that would feel like the urge to have my camera like off, and like, and like just sit there, listening but no, like the comments on instagram live are some of the best things ever. Being able to like put your own comments, and listen to everyone’s comments is so fun. So I think that’s also a huge part of it as well.
Joshua: And I’m not gonna lie, when I believe it was like two days, I don’t know, it was a few days before nationals or even there, I don’t remember, there was a [CUWC] live that we joined, and maybe it’s like the access and intimacy of it all, but like the comments, we were cutting it UP, with people I didn’t even know. When I got off, I was like “Wait, I don’t even know half of these people.”, but it’s really the access of it all, and I feel like that’s why Catching Up is also such a great resource, and I also wanna ask like, who do yall see as the target audience of Catching Up With Competitors?
Mariam: That’s hard, I think- I don’t know, I feel like it’s def-obviously competitors. But I think, what’s it called, we are I will say like very speech like associated, when we’re what’s it called, when we’re interviewing people, it’s usually a speech kid, so I think it’s like more when people are interested in the speech world, the speech like, just how speech works, how they can get better doing speech, I would say like speech competitors, are like our target, target audience.
Nasim: Yeah I definitely agree and, I know Cait did a lot of these, and I wanna get more into these too, but like, the sessions before like big tournaments, and like really being able to like dive into like those interp pieces, I feel like that’s also part of our target audience because like not everyone gets to go to NIETOC right?, not everyone gets to go to NSDA, so just being able to see these really talented people perform, even though you may not be able to see them in other places like that’s who I really want to connect with.
Mariam: Yeah, absolutely.
Joshua: And honestly, I agree. I feel like Catching Up With Competitors, ‘cause like my oratory right, when I had contacted you all because my coach brought up a very important issue about how a lot of schools don’t have the accessibility to most of the resources in our community, and there’s a lot of resources right? But like, the problem is like engagement or like sharing of those resources, and I feel like the platform, does so much when it comes to like disseminating like all these sessions, that you talked about like the night before NIETOC, like I remember I was like- I wasn’t even on there but when my friend had told me about it, I was like “Okay this is something I cold like, I could listen to, I could follow.” And I feel like having such a platform is very important and it’s so, I don’t know why it’s so underrated, like something that should be blown up, like I don’t know why it’s not popping bro … But anyways, if you had to describe the impact you wanted Catching Up to have , in one word, what would it be?
Mariam: Community. Absolutely.
Nasim: That’s a really good one.
Mariam: I feel like, I just think like the sanctuary that we, that Caitlin has created, and that we’ve been able to just expand on I think, is insane. Half of the friends that I have now, that I consider so close, I met through catching Up, you know? So It’s like the community that has been created, and the support system, and the kindness that you’ve been able to get through , and like being able to connect with people all over the nation, is absolutely insane. And I think my word would definitely be community.
Nasim: Honestly, this might sound simple but it's like in my head it’s really not but growth. Because I feel like when I started just watching Catching Up, I didn’t know what I was doing, at all. And then to see huge people like Cait, Xavier, Jade just like really being able to shine bright, not only in their performances, but as people, I feel like that has inspired me so much to just grow and I hope other people take that too.
Mariam: Yes. Absolutely.
Joshua: And, speaking of growth, there are a lot of features on the instagram that I feel like are understated as well, so if y'all wanna like speak to like some of what you do one there like, I know there are like interviews and stuff like that, if you’d like to speak more on that.
Mariam: Hey squad, if you’re listening right now, you should absolutely check out CUWC. We do interviews, we’re constantly talking about upcoming tournaments, the huge ones, the big ones, we do story takeovers, I’m gonna be waiting for you at Harvard to see. I cannot wait. I cannot wait, yes, we do so much stuff, we get to talk to so many people, it is so interesting, if you wanna hear anything about literally anything in the speech and debate community. If you just wanna have friends, if you wanna find a squad in your debate community, absolutely check us out. We would love to have you.
Nasim: Absolutely. Honestly, I couldn’t say anything better. Literally come check us out like, if you don’t like us you don’t have to stay but come on now, like.
Mariam: Yes!!
Joshua: And I think yall put it best, like, if you’re on instagram and you’re in speech what are you doing if you’re not following?
Mariam: What are you doing?
Joshua: Right, get on that and follow, Catching Up With Competitors, and I wanna thank you so much again for doing this. Thank you so much Mariam. Thank you so much Nasim, and that’s all!
