Speech Club successful in first tournament

Celine Isabelle Arnobit, Reporter

Academy high school students competed in their first non-qualifying speech tournament at Sacred Hearts on Oct. 4.

Students competed in Student Congress and program reading, two of several categories for high schoolers.

Speech club members were pleased with their results.

Academy senior Kristen Andres said, “I was surprised upon seeing the judges’ comments because half of what they said I did not expect. It was a pleasant surprise, though, because their comments offered constructive criticism to help me work on my weaknesses and capitalize on my strengths in speech and debate. I was motivated afterwards to continue practicing so I will be able to receive a better score at the next competition.”

Speech club adviser Jill Sprott agreed that the team did exceptionally well in the first tournament of the year.

“Overall, the team did really well. The first meet is usually like our warm-up for the year. I was very impressed and so were the judges. Our Congress also did really well. Summer Tsukenjo did program reading and earned some positive comments from the judges. This is the first time we’ve had a program reader read a piece for the first time and have such positive reactions,” said Sprott.

The team has two competitions in November, one for middle schoolers at Maryknoll and the other at the high school tournament at Kaiser.