Tweet

Bellwood-Antis freshman Emma Corrado is making waves for the Bellwood-Antis speech team. In her first meet, she placed second and yesterday she placed first in the  impromptu category, which is arguably the hardest category to compete in.

With impromptu, you have 10 minutes to write a speech on a random topic given out at the beginning of that round. The only resources the speaker has are  prior knowledge, a dictionary and, one notecard to write down thoughts. Impromptu is about the speaker getting comfortable with the topic  and delivering it, even if it’s unfamiliar.

Yesterday, Emma spoke on overachieving and injustice. Emma admits she can be a cynical person, which is the technique she typically uses when competing. However, yesterday when speaking about injustice, she gave actual instances.

Emma said she feels her writing ability helps her when writing impromptu speeches.

“I get bored of doing the same piece,” Emma explained, which is why she decided to pursue impromptu.

Since Emma is in ninth grade, she will also be able to compete in high school speech competitions: however, impromptu is not one of the high school categories. Even though Emma will have to switch her category, Mrs. Cunningham and Mrs. Padula, the high school speech team advisors, are very excited to see what she brings to the team.

Along with Emma’s first place victory, there were six other place winners from seventh to ninth grade in the categories duo, impromptu, persuasive, and prose.

Caedon Poe and Jayce Miller placed fourth in duo, while and Bridget Finochio and Lexi Franks placed finished third.

In persuasive Abi Eckenrod and Sarah Berkowitz tied for fifth, and  and in Prose Raela Zuiker placed fourth.

Zac Amato was a fourth-place finisher in impromptu.

“It is nice to see the students become more comfortable with public speaking and excited to perform,” said Mrs. Kathy Taylor, the junior high speech team adviser.