On Thursday, August 26th, the Glenbard South speech team had their first meeting to kick off the 2021-22 season. Students on the speech team will memorize and/or write speeches, practice performing, and will compete in tournaments against other high schools in the area. Naomi Friedman(Senior) and Kevin Pinkelman(Senior) were the co captains last year and will be again this year, and they are both enthusiastic about the year to come.
Friedman was able to answer a few questions about the Glenbard South speech team. She has been a member of the speech team for all four years of high school and has competed in the Dramatic Interpretation event, where one performs a dramatic monologue. This year she will be interested in trying Impromptu speaking or Extemporaneous speaking to challenge herself at speaking on the spot. “I decided to join speech freshman year because I always really enjoyed acting and public speaking. I thought that joining speech would be a great way to improve my public speaking skills and get me more involved in school extracurriculars,” said Friedman when asked why she decided to join the speech team. As co-captain this year, she will be looking forward to the possibility of in-person competitions, and being face to face with all of her teammates. When discussing auditions, which were held on Tuesday, August 31st, Freidman stated that, “It looks like we’ll have some great talent on the team this year!” When asked about one thing that people should know about the speech team, she answered, “It’s a great way to improve your public speaking skills, and it’s also not as daunting as it may seem. When you give a speech you have a panel of no more than three judges (usually just one) and you’re speaking to only the other people in your round, everyone in that round also wants to see you succeed which makes it less stressful. It’s also really nice because we get critique sheets from judges that give us constructive criticism on how to improve our speeches that can be invaluable. Speech is not only a fun club but it gives you lifelong skills.”
Speech team is not only a place to grow your public speaking ability, it’s also a place to have fun. Freidman stated, “I do speech team because I genuinely enjoy it and I enjoy being able to perform a piece and make it personal to me. I love watching everyone else perform and see all the hard work they put into their speech come together. I also like dressing up in heels for competitions and feeling important!”
If students are interested in joining, speech team meets every Tuesday after school in Mrs. Vicker’s room (306) to practice and prepare for upcoming competitions.