Speaking is one of the most important skills anyone can have. The community of Ripon High School values this skill and wants to see who the future speakers of the world are. On Feb 5 2024, the community of Ripon held a speech competition in which the best speakers from 6-12th grade from all RUSD schools presented speeches to the community of Ripon.

The students in this speech contest were chosen by their teachers, by having the best speech written and spoken in their entire grade at their school. They would then present their speech towards several judges and members of Ripon in the RHS M.U.B. This made many of the students nervous considering how not only did they have to present to dozens of people, but also had to go against students who had just as good of speeches. However, none of the kids faltered and they all presented amazing speeches.

Eighth grade winner Aubree Lautenslager stated, “I was really nervous, but I was also really excited and I was like this is what I’m going to do and I felt really prepared.”

The students of these competitions all gave very detailed and entertaining speeches on topics they feel strongly about. For example, there were topics about how school systems are run, the life of famous individuals, personal stories, etc. All of these speeches were amazing, however the judges needed to decide which grade level had the best speech. By the end of the night, five students had gotten first place in their grade for their performance.

Senior Logan Tricky stated on his preparation for his speech, “It was a lot of memorization. I would sometimes go on walks and just memorize my speech as I walked.”

Despite not everyone being able to win in their respective grades, all the students did amazing and have a bright future in being the speakers of the future.