The excitement is building for multiple Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Individual Speech Students as they will make their way to the state contest this weekend. 

They had 11 entries in total qualify for the state competition by receiving a division-1 rating at the district level competition. Those entries fall into the categories of prose, poetry, lit program, original oratory and after dinner speaking. 

Senior Alexa Seidl will be performing in two total events including storytelling and prose. She says that her prose performance plays off the emotion of a school shooting and her storytelling act will be about the memoirs of a goldfish. Seidl says she earned an all-state nomination last year and would like to receive that recognition again. Siedl tells Raccoon Valley Radio that there will be a couple things she’ll have to clean up. 

“So for my storytelling, its an interactive piece with the audience and so I really want on using my face and expressions because there is different characters within it so using different voices because there is different characters and since I’ve never done storytelling before I really want to work on giving those characters their own voice and actions.”

Senior Norah Lipovac will be performing in the category of after-dinner speaking at the state competition. Lipovac says after-dinner speaking is supposed to be an informal speech that resonates with an audience and her subject will reflect her previous birthdays. She talks about how thrilled she is to take the stage for a chance to earn an all-state nomination. 

“This is actually my first year doing speech so I’m just excited to experience it for the first time and see everyone else’s performances as well as just try and do my best on my own speech.”

 Iowa High School Speech Association State Individual Contest will take place on Saturday at Ames High School. The names of those who earned a qualifying spot will be listed below.