| The Speech and Drama team have had
another outstanding season under the direction of Ms. Marvin.
Although Ms. Marvin has been unavailable to contribute to this article
due to health issues, we instead interviewed
two seniors that are on the Speech Team right now. Their
names are Kyle Ratcliffe and Amber Schilink.
When we interviewed Amber she told me that there are thirteen events that
are involved in speech. Amber participates in two of these thirteen
events - Original Comedy and Humorous
Interruption. At the state meet, Amber placed fourth in Original Comedy and
then placed third in Humorous Interruption. She then went on to
win in national qualifiers and is now taking a trip to Las
Vegas. She also went to nationals last year. She made it nationals
and state with help from her amazing friend Katelyn Eades
(at least that's what she says).
She was then voted district student of the year and is now in the
running for national student of the year. She told me that she is
going onto college to become a speech coach and intends to coach the
speech team here at Normal West during her college years at Illinois
State. She told us during the interview that her favorite thing in
the world was speech and that Ms. Marvin is a great coach.
The speech
team won the sectionals for the first time this year and won the
regional's for the second time in two years. She is going into the
nationals for Humorous Interruptions and intends to exceed at Humorous
Interruptions and hopes to go even farther into competition. She
told me that she was extra excited for Nationals and intends to exceed
in nationals. The quote she told me was "Speech is the taught me
to become a critical thinker and a life long learner." She then
shared with me that she was going to be sharing a room with Marvin for
Nationals. Kyle Ratcliffe told
us in
his interview that the atmosphere of Speech Team is really friendly and
that Ms. Marvin is an amazing person that will do anything you need.
He told me that everyone in the competitions know each other already and
there is a friendly environment throughout the competitions even though
they always want to win. As a senior he took on the responsibility
or being a leader and a co captain with Amber Schilink. Whenever
the Speech Team won an award the whole Speech Team would go up to the
stage and hold the award so that they could show how teamwork excels.
The events that Kyle partook in was Pros which he did all three years,
Dramatic Duet Acting in his previous year, and Special Occasion
Speaking. Pros is a form of story telling with a little book,
Dramatic Duet Acting is dramatic acting with two people, and Special
Occasion Speaking is a speech the person wrote that is humorous, on
Special Occasion Speaking Kyle wrote a speech about Personal Hygiene.
In Regional's Kyle placed third in Special Occasion Speaking and won
Pros, in Sectionals Kyle got third in Special Occasion Speaking and
second in Pros, and in State Amber was the only one that placed. I
asked him if he thought that students should get into Speech and of
course he said yeas and this is what he had to say " Speech homes in on
helping communication skills, people skills, and is a good way to learn
how to speak in front of people in an intelligent or joking manor.
Kyle said that Marvin was like a second mom to him and she did
everything to help a student succeed, also she helped in any manor she
could, and last but not least she was a person that Kyle believed he
could ask her for advice no matter what it was about.
Congratulations and good
luck to our impressive speech and drama teams!!!!!!!!! |
Amber Schlink (12) Co Captain with Kyle Ratcliffe
Kyle Ratcliffe (12) Co Captain with Amber Schlink |
