Lowell Forensic Society

The Lowell Forensic Society, founded in 1892, is the oldest high school speech and debate team in the United States and also the largest organization at Lowell High School in San Francisco, California. The society occupies Room 135, also known as "Leland Room," named after former Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury Marc E. Leland.

With over 200 members, the team travels regularly to prestigious national invitations, including Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Long Beach, and the Tournament of Champions at Kentucky. Lowell Forensics has also competed in the National Speech and Debate Tournament under the National Forensic League for 40 years, making it one of the longest running national championship teams in the nation.

Recent history

In the nineties, the Forensic Society saw one of its greatest peaks under the leadership of Sandra Bird. Every year in the decade, Forensics made it to Nationals while Individual Events and Congress debate saw a major comeback in the late nineties as Lowellites took greater interest in dramatic events. In 1995, Lowell Forensics received the NFL Leading Chapter Award in San Francisco Bay Area District and later for two consecutive years, in 1997 and 1998, the Lowell Forensics Society was named one of the top 5% of NFL Chapters in the nation for achieving over 200 degrees.

The Forensics team suffered a setback in 2002 when it lost Sandra Bird (albeit to retirement), an irreplaceable part of Lowell's debate legacy and its longtime coach. Bird, who brought the team from States to Nationals year after year as the coach of Lowell Forensics for decades, retired after receiving her fifth diamond (the highest and rarest honor bestowed by the National Forensic League).

In the years that followed Bird’s retirement, Christopher Newhouse, a biology teacher, took up the helm of leading the team while administrative and training duties largely fell into the hands of student leaders of the organization. The Forensics team, for a short period, was also conjoined to the English department, resulting in a lack of a permanent coaching staff. In light of these changes, the society board’s officer arrangements were reformed in 2003, with the creation of the new positions of Congress Director, Policy Debate Director, and Individual Events Director.

At the same time, despite these organizational challenges, Forensics in the new millennium has become the largest student organization on campus. In 2003-2005, Forensics membership more than tripled, with 172 students; one in nine Lowell students is affiliated with the Lowell Forensic Society and 199 new NFL degrees were earned in 2005. In the same year, with generous support from the Fineman Fund and the Lowell Alumni Association, Lowell qualified for Nationals for the 39th time in addition to State Championships, Stanford, Berkeley, and Harvard national invitational tournaments.

Despite the Society's long history, some firsts have been accomplished in relatively recent years. In 1999, the first policy debate team qualified for and attended the Tournament of Champions in Kentucky; in 2009, for the first time in Lowell Forensic Society history, members of the Lowell squad competed at the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament in Albany, New York; and in 2010, Lowell sent its very first Parliamentary Debate team to the California State Championships.

Notable alumni

Lowell Forensic Society alumni include Yale University President Richard Levin, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, California Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, actress Carol Channing, actor Benjamin Bratt, writer Naomi Wolf, actor Bill Bixby, PG&E CEO Frederick Mielke, author Daniel Handler, and numerous academics, writers, and judges.

• Jack Anderson, 1949 Longtime Lowell H.S. Forensics coach and VPA Dept. chair
• Bill Bixby, 1952 Television star, My Favorite Martian and The Incredible Hulk
• Stephen Breyer, 1955 U.S. Supreme Court associate justice; Harvard law professor
• Edmund G. Brown, 1923 California Governor, 1959–1967; State Attorney General
• Harold Brown, 1925 California Court of Appeals justice
• Julia Chang Bloch, 1959 U.S. Ambassador to Nepal – first U.S. Ambassador of Asian descent
• Carol Channing, 1938 International star of screen and stage
• John Heilbron, 1951 Vice Chancellor and professor of History at UC Berkeley
• Richard Levin, 1964 President, Yale University; Professor and Chairman of Economics, Yale University
• Marvin Lewis, 1924 San Francisco Supervisor and leader for creation of BART
• Mathew Tobriner, 1920 California Supreme Court justice
• Naomi Wolf, 1980 Rhodes Scholar; Author, The Beauty Myth

Past Coaches

Name	Years
George Lorbeer	1930–1960
Jack Anderson	1960–1975
Sandra Bird	1975–2001
Christopher Newhouse	2000–2005
Harlan Edelman	2002–2004
Terence Abad	2005–present

Past presidents

Name	Years
Barbara Hou	1998–1999
[unknown]	1999–2000
Emily Avera	2000–2001
Gigi Wong	2001–2002
Lauren Yee	2002–2003
Jeffrey Kwong	2003–2005
Huilin Wang	2003–2004
Nicole Hui	2004–2005
Jacky Kwong	2005–2007
Roy C. Lee	2007–2008
Justin Vuong	2008–2009
Thomas Tu	2009–2010
Matthew Estipona	2010–2011
Alison Ong	2011-present

External links

• Lowell Forensics Website