While many students
spend their summers disconnected from school-related obligations, Junior Zach
Harper decided to utilize part of his summer vacation by attending the Illinois
State University, two-week long speech camp this past July 2013. He would begin
each day bright and early at 8:30 a.m. and would finish each day filled with
fluent speech and diction at 9:00 p.m. Throughout the fun-filled day, Zach
honed his skills in his Extemporaneous Speaking to prepare for this year’s
speech competitions. Repetition of Extemporaneous, the category of speech Zach
competes in for the EHS Speech team, is giving a personal view on how problems
should be solved in relation to current events. Topics of interest include
recent court cases and recent news stories. Knowing that some new topics may be
inappropriate for the high school level, Zach said, “It is important to stay
away from hot or controversial topics.” Many students from all around Illinois
were in attendance which brought many different viewpoints to the camp. His
primary reason in attending this camp was to gain knowledge and experience, and
he commented, “I threw myself into the event [of extemp] last year because they
needed someone.” Zach first competed in extemp his sophomore year and has high
hopes for this coming speech season because of his participation in the camp.
“It’s really fun to go but a lot more fun to know what you’re doing when you’re
there,” said Zach. Zach dreams that with the new set of spiffy speech
tools in his pocket that he will be able to medal at state this year in extemp.
Harper hopes the future holds a further speech career in college. Whatever the
future holds for Zach, he is confident he will be speaking his way to the top.
By: Senior Katie
Schwanke, Journalism editor
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| Zach Harper |
