KNIGHT BECOMES PERSUASIVE CHAMP AT STATE, TEAM PLACES 9TH OVERALL
March 23, 2018--It was a big day for Bergan Speech students. Three students of the team qualified to compete at the Nebraska State Speech Competition The team placed overall of 9th place in Nebraska. A senior state qualifier, Dylan Fuchs, Brett Hilbers, and a sophomore state qualifier, Raegan Hoyle led the team to have a strong showing. Dylan Fuchs placed ninth in extemporaneous, Brett Hilbers placed fifth in extemporaneous, along with Raegan Hoyle who on state champion in persuasive speaking.
Brett Hilbers’ and Dylan Fuch’s event, extemporaneous, often called “extemp” for short, this event seeks to help students build an in-depth understanding of current events in our country and throughout the world. Rather than writing one speech and spending the season perfecting it, Brett spends time researching weekly or monthly questions, and putting together a file of news articles that pertain to them. Through this research, students will usually learn enough to be able to put together a speech about one of the questions quickly. The students will get to choose from three topics, and once they select it, they will get an hour to prepare for a 5-7 minute speech. Raegan Hoyle’s event, persuasive, is a standard academic speech designed to persuade the audience about a controversial issue. The best topics are ones that might be obscure or lesser-known or ones that allow you to go into significant depth. Raegan’s speech was about the importance of taking ‘mental health day.’ Persuasive speeches typically follow the three main-point format, and the students will have the option of presenting a manuscript for around ten minutes.
The students spent an average of about 35 hours in total to practice their speeches. Raegan Hoyle will give her speech for the one last time at National Speech in Denver this May
