There are two types of speeches; informative and persuasive. On Feb 8, four students gave informational speeches and four students gave argumentative speeches. Leaving the district speech contest held at the MUB, you feel both inspired and informed by all of the speeches. The two best speeches by freshman; Agit Johal, and Reina Lomibao, competed against two best speeches by sophomores; Reed Prosser and Emilie Valles. For the argumentative speeches, the four best speeches by juniors competed against each other. The competitors were Elias Ramirez, Valarie Chun, Maryn Brenner, and Dawson Donich.

Each of the informative speeches gave an interesting insight into various topics, but the most unique speech was by Reed Prosser, who informed how a frog and a spider can live in harmony. Prosser won first place for best informative speech! 

Prosser states, “The purpose of my speech was first to get an award, and secondly just to inform people about a very interesting topic. I was personally interested in the topic, so I assumed other people would [be] as well.” When Prosser was asked how he found out about the symbiotic relationship he says, “I was just generally having a hard time choosing my topic, but I believe it was in biology class, we were talking about symbiotic relationships, and I thought ‘oh I already know a symbiotic relationship, I guess I’ll just do that’”. 

The runner up for informative was Emilie Valles, who informed people on how to be persuasive. Then Agit Johal placed third for his speech about the Fermi Paradox. Finally, Reina Lomibao took fourth place with her informative speech on musicals. A surprising element of the speeches was just how unique and interesting each speech was.

One of the most unique speeches was given by junior Elias Ramirez, who took first place. Ramirez argued why all teens should have access to contraceptives. For argumentative speeches, the most important part is being able to persuade your audience by being a great speaker. When Ramirez was asked if he enjoyed public speaking he stated, “Yeah I do, I think it is really fun to get up on stage and speak in front of everyone.”

In second place, Valarie Chun gave a persuasive argument on UBI (universal basic income). Dawson Donich took third on agriculture, followed by Maryn Brenner on forced vaccination.

Most of all, each speech showed the great academic side of Ripon High. Being able to speak about your thoughts and feelings takes determination, but presenting yourself in front of a whole gym full of people takes pure bravery. Through all of this, every person was able be persuasive, informative, and keep the audience’s attention. Congratulations to every competitor and congratulations to those who are going onto divisions!