Rashon Leday

                                 Duo. POI

Short Bio: 

Hello, everyone my name is Rashon Leday. I'm from Lafayette Louisiana, I am a current member of the WKU Forensics team and i'm also an alumni of Comeaux High School. I have been doing speech and debate for 7 years now. However I didn’t start competing nationally until the latter end of my freshman year of high school, by the time I was a sophomore I was locally competing in 6 events and doing extremely well in all of them. Throughout my time in this activity I have had the incredible opportunity to travel across the nation and achieve the wildest dreams of my speech and debate career like winning state, qualifying for Nationals or making National Finals. But while traveling I began to realize that this activity and the words that I was saying as well as the people I was advocating for and the messages, experiences and artistry of other performers meant so much more than just me or a trophy. 

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Coaching Philosophy:

In interp I think the most important part is being able to be a true advocate. In coaching sessions I always tell my students while performing advocacy works like a cycle, with three parts. When you get up to perform, firstly you're advocating for yourself because that alone takes courage. In fact 77% of the world's population suffers from glossophobia, which is the fear of public speaking. Secondly you're advocating for the people on whose behalf you're speaking. Finally you're advocating for the author's whose words that you are using. Now being a true advocate for what you wanna speak on is easier than you may think and all it really takes is research, compassion and honesty. Some of you might ask, how does that make you a better performer? well if you incorporate true advocacy and its components, you can't help but to become a better, more well rounded performer. Because you have done thorough research on your topic, your one more educated about it  and now you can educate others in hopes that the change you are advocating for does not fall on deaf ears because the people in the classrooms with you literally hold the future in their hands. If you are compassionate about the message you're sharing and the words you're saying, you connect better and deliver a more moving performance people can connect to. And if you're honest in your art, message, delivery and your truth you will enjoy every single second of it. It is my belief that the culmination of all these different things will undoubtedly lead to a spectacular performance, and an even more rivaling competitor.