Brownwood-area high school students and coaches will have two opportunities in October to prepare for University Interscholastic League competitions with Howard Payne University’s Student Speaker Bureau speech and debate team. The university announced the workshops on Sept. 29, 2026, inviting area high school UIL teams to participate in sessions covering congressional debate, speaking events, debate and journalism.
Both workshops will be held on the Howard Payne campus in Brownwood. The first session, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 8, will focus exclusively on the UIL Congress event. The second, set for Oct. 28, will combine instruction in UIL speaking and debate events with journalism training.
Oct. 8 workshop will focus on UIL Congress
The Oct. 8 session is designed to cover the basic elements students need to understand before competing in UIL Congress. Instruction will include the event’s format, writing and presenting bills, debating format, flowing, writing briefs, PO rules and procedures, and cross-examination.
Rylie Burden, a senior captain on Howard Payne’s speech and debate team, will lead the Congress workshop. The university identifies Burden as a four-time state qualifier and two-time state finalist. She is also a Guy D. Newman Honors Academy and jurisprudence major from Lubbock.
“Participating in the UIL Congress event really challenged me as a high school student, and I love being able to give back to students to help prepare them for their own competition,”
Burden said.
The workshop is intended for students who are preparing for their own competitions, while also giving participating teams access to instruction from a university competitor with extensive high school experience. The source did not specify a registration deadline, building or room for the session.
Oct. 28 session adds speaking, debate and journalism
The second workshop on Oct. 28 will address a broader group of UIL events. Speech instruction will include prose, poetry, informative extemporaneous speaking and persuasive extemporaneous speaking. Students will also receive instruction in Lincoln-Douglas debate, identified by the university as LD debate, and cross-examination debate, or CX debate.
Members of Howard Payne’s award-winning Student Speaker Bureau speech and debate team will provide the speech and debate instruction. Each session will be led by a member of the university team, according to Dr. Julie Welker, who is a professor of communication, chair of the Department of Communication, and director of the speech and debate team and campus student news.
“Our team does an outstanding job of coaching these high school students in preparation for their upcoming invitational and district spring meets,”
Welker said.
The journalism portion of the Oct. 28 workshop will cover editorial, news, feature and headline writing. Strategic communication majors and staff members of Howard Payne’s Yellow Jacket student media will provide that training.
Welker said the journalism instructors include a former state champion in UIL journalism as well as Howard Payne student editors. The university says the instruction will be useful for students with different levels of experience, from those learning the events for the first time to competitors seeking more advanced preparation.
“We like for this to be an opportunity for novice students to get practical, hands-on training in each event, and for experienced students to dive deeper into their respective events,”
Welker said.
Fees, coaches and registration
Participating schools may bring as many as three coaches without paying a fee. Student registration costs $50 per student for the Oct. 8 Congress workshop. The Oct. 28 speech, debate and journalism workshop costs $35 per student.
Lunch is not included in either workshop’s cost. However, the university said lunch will be available on campus or at local restaurants, giving students and coaches food options during the day without including the meal in the registration price.
Registration is open online at www.hputx.edu/SSBUILworkshops. Howard Payne did not provide a registration closing date in the announcement.
Workshops support Student Speaker Bureau
In addition to providing competition preparation, the workshops serve as the Howard Payne speech and debate team’s largest fundraiser. The university said its Student Speaker Bureau relies on donations to fund the program.
Contributions help support travel expenses and other related needs. People who want to support the program can visit www.hputx.edu/give, select “Other” beneath the “Designation” heading, enter “Student Speaker Bureau” in the space provided and complete the donation form.
Questions about the workshops can be directed to Dr. Julie Welker at [email protected]. The announcement describes the programs as annual UIL workshops, but it does not list a detailed daily schedule, a maximum number of student participants or specific campus facilities for either event.
Howard Payne University, founded in 1889, is a Christ-centered liberal arts university in Brownwood. The university says it offers more than 100 majors, minors and pre-professional programs across six schools and serves students at three locations. Its stated core values include being centered on Christ, focused on community, called to service, committed to excellence and dedicated to stewardship.