The Iowa High School Speech Association Individual State Contest is this Saturday at Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School and two students discuss their motivations to join.

ADM will have 24 students participating in the state contest, after they received Division One Ratings at the Districts Competition on February 24th. Two students that will be performing on Saturday are Juniors Ella Greer and Kae Nau. The girls share their inspirations for joining the speech team. Greer expresses that she has always had a passion for theater.

“I’ve always loved theater and so speech was something similar to that and so I thought I’d give it a try and I just fell in love with it.”

Nau, on the other hand, didn’t like public speaking but knew it would be beneficial for her professional career.

“I was really afraid of public speaking, and I knew that if I wanted to be a teacher I’d have to constantly be speaking in front of other people. So my freshman year I joined it just to get over it, but I didn’t think I’d kind of realize how much it impacted my life and how much I’d come back and do it over, and over, and over again.”

Nau will be participating in the Prose and Storytelling categories, while Greer will be in After Dinner Speaking. The state contest will be held at ADM High School on Saturday. The full list of students, along with their category can be found below.

Acting Category

William Beebe

Zuri Moss

Daria Spinu

Solo Musical Theatre Category

William Beebe

Prose Category

Chloe Bond

McKinley Cornwell

Kelby Dimler

Danielle Georgick

Emma McDowell

Chloe Meacham

Kae Nau

After Dinner Speaking Category

Kaylin Dains

Ella Greer

Public Address

Liz Dirksen

Literary Program Category

Lydia Georgick

Haley Perry

Brenna Seidl

Payton Taylor

Expository Address Category

Paul Giles

Brenna Seidl

Storytelling Category

Jadah Manning

Rhyan Miller

Kae Nau

Spontaneous Speaking Category

Kavya Patel