At the National Qualifiers tournament in San Marino, Isaiah Lopez, 12, was elected to be one of the few students who are giving the chance to compete at nationals against other high school students.

Lopez had just joined Arroyo’s Speech and Debate team last year and has already made an impact on the team by qualifying for nationals. This is the first time in the school’s history that someone from the humorous interpretation category has qualified for nationals and the second time that someone from the overall speech and debate team has qualified.

“I had just joined the speech team my junior year, and I honestly never expected to be too good. I worked ever since last summer trying to perfect my craft and I sacrificed so much of my time and put as much effort into being the best,” said Lopez, “Once they announced that I had qualified, I honestly broke down because it was the biggest accomplishment I have ever had and I thought back to all those sleepless nights I spent preparing and it all paid off.”

Lopez made it clear that he greatly appreciated the support and help from other students and teachers.

“Isaiah has made amazing progress since he first started speech. It wasn’t hard for us to figure out that his area of strength is comedy, and we worked on it really hard to get him to where he is now,” said one of his teammates, Abram Quiroz, 12. “Together, we came up with many creative ideas to improve his performance. Whenever he did not know how to make a joke or act out a scene, he came to me.”

Lopez also stated that Quiroz helped him improve along his journey to nationals.

Speech and Debate Nationals will be held in Birmingham, Alabama and will go on for a week from June 18th to June 23rd.