Youth Organizations

The National Forensic League (NFL) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational honor society founded in 1925 by Bruno E. Jacob at Ripon College, Wisconsin. Its purpose is to encourage and motivate high school students to participate in and become proficient in the speech arts: debate, public speaking, and oral interpretation of literature.

Since its founding, NFL has enrolled more than 1 million members in all fifty states, U.S. possessions, and several foreign countries. At the start of the twenty-first century more than 2,600 high schools, 93,000 high school students, and 3,500 high school teachers were active members.

Any public or private high school is eligible to become affiliated with NFL upon payment of dues and with the permission of the school's principal. High school students enrolled in an NFL member school who rank scholastically in the top two-thirds of their class and who have earned twenty-five NFL points may apply for NFL membership by paying a onetime fee. Students earn points by participating in interscholastic speech and debate contests, student congresses, or community speaking. NFL encourages improvement of student speech skills by awarding NFL points and granting degrees based upon points earned. These degrees are: Degree of Merit (25 points), Honor (75 points), Excellence (150 points), Distinction (250 points), Special Distinction (500 points), Superior Distinction (750 points), and Outstanding Distinction (1,000 points).

The NFL believes that contests are one of the most effective educational devices. The National Speech Tournament has been held continuously since 1931 (except during World War II). Contests are held in the following areas:

• policy debate
• value debate
• legislative debate
• U.S. topic extemporaneous speaking
• foreign topic extemporaneous speaking
• original oratory
• interpretation of dramatic literature
• interpretation of humorous literature
• duo interpretation
• commentary
• impromptu speaking
• prose reading
• poetry reading
• expository speaking
• storytelling

More than $100,000 in college scholarships is awarded to the winning students at each national tournament. Qualification for the national finals is earned by placement in one of the 103 district tournaments, conducted in all parts of the nation.

A nine-member executive council governs the league. Four councilors, who are active high school coaches and teachers, are elected every two years by the membership. Each elected councilor serves a four-year term. The ninth councilor is a high school administrator, who is elected every two years by the other councilors. The NFL president and vice president must be councilors and are elected by the council every two years.

The National Student Congress, first established in 1938, has met continuously since 1952. Students are elected from 103 district congresses to serve in the national congress. Student legislators author bills and resolutions, learn to use parliamentary procedure, conduct hearings and committee meetings, engage in floor debate, and vote on proposed legislation. During congress week, eighteen preliminary chambers elect members to eight semifinal chambers, which in turn name twenty-four senators and twenty-four representatives to a final congress. A scholarship is awarded to the superior legislator in each house of the final congress.

The NFL publishes its monthly magazine, Rostrum, during the school year, which features news of the league, educational articles to improve student skills, and teaching materials for coaches. The National Forensic Library contains more than fifty videos of the nation's finest high school and college speech educators, each teaching their specialty. These tapes are free to member schools.

NFL was founded with the motto: "Training Youth for Leadership." NFL alumni are found in the business community, the professions, academic institutions, government, communications, and the arts. Prominent NFL alumni include President Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, many senators and representatives, Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer, the scholar Lawrence Tribe, college presidents David Boren and John Sexton, television personality Oprah Winfrey, and CSPAN founder Brian Lamb.