Stomachs were filled with butterflies on Feb 8. Each contestant tried calming their nerves while they waited to walk on stage to state their speech. Looking out into the crowd they saw many unknown faces and realized all eyes were on them, especially with the big spotlight flashing onto them exposing your countenance.

Out of the 1,000 RHS students who wrote speeches this January, only eight advanced to compete

in the 4th Annual Ripon Unified District Speech Contest. Giolanna Loretelli, sophomore, took home the

first place trophy for the underclassman Informative category and Jenna

Skavdahl, junior, won the upperclassman Argumentative trophy–her second win.

Students had the beginning of January to choose their topic depending on if they were writing informative or argumentative. Each student had to present their finished speech in front of their English period. 1 student would get selected by their teacher to get moved on to what was known as the “second round”. They had to then give their speeches to English teachers. Then, those teachers chose 2 students from every grade to go compete to the third round which was the district. On Feb 8. the district speech competition was held in the M.U.B. These brave students all did a wonderful job with presenting their speeches. Congrats to each one, you are all winners!