The Forensics team recently qualified for State. Instead of only a few individuals having the opportunity, each member of the team advanced to the State level. Senior Sunnie Jeffers said, “I was really excited for State. This is something I’d worked hard for all year, and the fact that I had all my work paid off was really good to see.”
State took place on April 19th and 20th. Students competing at State had the option to compete virtually or in person. This year, everyone on the team chose to compete virtually by submitting a video of their piece.
Prior to State, the team competed at Subdistricts in Holmen on February 20th and Districts in West Salem on March 16th where they needed certain scores to advance to the next level.
Of course, the goal is always to do well, and Forensics advisor and English teacher Andrea Armstrong said, “Truly, you want the students to feel like they really made something of the piece that they selected and noticed within themselves the kind of growth they had from the first time to their last performance and feel like they really left it all on the field.”
Among other benefits, being a part of Forensics can help students to gain confidence in public speaking. “It definitely helped improve my public speaking skills, so I’m less nervous when I have to do things like that,” said Senior Taylor Burch. When asked why students should consider giving forensics a try, Armstrong said, “You are going to be talking to people your whole life for a thousand different reasons, so why not get really good at it?”