Last summer, Rachel Standal, an EHS senior, attended the 2016 Speech and Debate Nationals, competing in the informative category.

Standal’s speech was about mosquitoes. She explains, “It was a really awesome experience. It was different and not quite what I was expecting. Minnesota prepares you so well for these tournaments, and I got there and I was a lot more prepared than I thought I would be. I was also in the category that was brand new, so everyone’s speeches were different from mine. There was a lot of variety, because no one really knew what to expect when going there.”

At Speech Nationals, there are five preliminary rounds against randomly chosen competitors. Afterwards, competitors break to the top 60, then the top 24, top 12, and finally the top six for finals.

Standal broke to the semifinals and won 7th place overall. Since she was one of the top eight informative speakers in the nation, she automatically gets to compete at nationals this year.

Standal is excited for “the competition to be stronger,” because as it was new last year, not many states had the informative category. She is very excited to go back and “have more competition.”

This speech season, Standal isn’t entirely sure of what her topic will be but is leaning towards electronic waste and what happens with our electronics when we are done using them.