Jake Rosoff

I'm a rising Sophomore at UF majoring in Information Systems. I mainly did Impromptu and a little bit of Congress. Debate, and Impromptu specifically, definitely helped me develop my presentation skills and on the fly speaking. Honestly, any time I have to give a presentation or answer a question, I think back to Impromptu and the skills it prepared me with. My debate personality was definitely very laid back' …. and felt the success came the less I worried about the results, and focused on the process instead.

I definitely think about to a speech I gave at my first varsity tournament during my freshman year. I started by saying "if I cover my eyes I can't see" and honestly felt a little embarrassed after saying it, but I ended up winning the round, which I had never done up to that point, so it was really cool and taught me that you didn't have to do too much to succeed.

Always try your best at tournaments, but make sure you also spend time with your friends, especially when you guys are traveling. Looking back at debate, most of my best memories come from the experiences I had at the tournaments themself as opposed to experience from in rounds.