For six Gig Harbor High School students, Kansas City, Missouri was a fun place to explore. From sizzling barbeque and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, to the World War I Museum and an amusement park, it was quite the location to relax after rounds in a national competition. From June 16 to 20, they, along with around 3,000 other students, competed in the 2014 Speech and Debate National competition. These GHHS students persuaded, argued, and described various topics in events such as original oratory and duo interpretation. In some events, like extemporaneous speech, they were given a limited preparation time, and did not know their memorized speech topic until half an hour before they presented. Although no student from GHHS made it past the first cut, Senior Heather Selby, this being her first year at Nationals, felt it was great “to meet very interesting ambitious students from all across the country.

Senior Mariah Squires, a third-time National competitor, explains, “I think each year I have taken something new from the experience. This year I think I learned the most about myself as a competitor. Speech has a really powerful way of exposing you to new ways of thinking and looking at ideas that you thought you already knew about, or had never even given your attention. That’s something I feel every high-schooler or person should absolutely be more exposed to.”

Mr. Coovert, the Speech and Debate team advisor, has taken students to Nationals before and anticipates GHHS Speech and Debate students to return to the competition next year when it is hosted in Birmingham, Alabama.