Speech is a very popular extracurricular activity at Benilde St. Margaret’s for natural and anxious public speakers alike. For many students, it is a way to help them gain confidence and persuasion skills in their speaking. On April 18, the speech season will come to a close at the Minnesota State High School speech tournament.

“We had a really great season. We had a lot of people who placed in the tournaments and just in general a lot of kids who participated,” senior and speech team co-captain Jacqueline Theisen said.

A strong indicator on whether a school’s speech program is successful or not is determined by how each student develops throughout the school year.

This year’s speech season was extremely successful. “We had a goal that our team would do well, and we did. We have placed at a lot of tournaments, like sweepstakes, and our team has done very well collectively,” Theisen said.

The Section 6AA speech tournament was held on Thursday, March 18. At the end of a very competitive night of speeches only the top three students in each category were chosen to represent the section and participate in the Minnesota State High School speech tournament.

After a long, hard season of preparation, work, and repetition, many Benilde St. Margaret’s students have moved on to speak at the State High School Tournament for speech on Saturday, April 18th, at Lakeville North High School. These students are sophomores, Zip Kaffey, Katie Marusich, Teagan Wolf, and Josie Ross; junior Jimmy Youngblut; and seniors, Parker Breza, Molly Eldevik, Andy Hudlow, Jackie Lawyer, and Megan Haakonson.