Agricultural Public Speaking Contest

On Saturday, Sept. 24th the Titus County Fair kicked off with the Agricultural Public Speaking Contest. The contest was hosted by Chapel Hill. There were six Junior division speakers and 19 Senior division speakers. For this contest, these students have to do a lot of preparation so they can not only get their point across through their speech but also because they have to stay under a time limit.

With this being an Agricultural Speaking Contest, all of the students had to write a speech in relation to Agriculture. The speeches had to be four to six minutes long. If they happened to go over the time limit the students had points deducted. While they had a time limit they also had to make sure their speech was in the format of APA, and have a copy for the judges as well. They also had to be able to answer any questions the judges would have for them at the end of their speech.

The topics for the contest ranged from AgriBusiness, Agriculture Communications, Agriculture Science, Natural Resources, Western Heritage, and others. These students have been working diligently on their speeches so they can make any changes needed and so they are prepared for the contest.

The Junior division had six contestants, all from Chapel Hill and these students did a wonderful job presenting their speeches. There were some nerves but once they got in the room they put their game face on and knocked it out of the park. For the Junior Division, there was a Grand Champion and a Reserve Grand Champion. The Grand Champion was Olivia Calhoun and the Reserve Grand was Rebecca Dunn.

The Senior Division had 19 contestants; these students were from Chapel Hill, Mount Vernon, Prairieland, and Harts Bluff. These students did a wonderful job presenting their speeches. After all of the contestants presented their speeches, the Seniors had a finals round. Six of the 19 contestants were chosen to give their speeches again, and the Senior Finalists were, Drake Klepzig from Chapel Hill, Betsy Tovar from Mount Vernon, Katy-Jo Rivinius from Chapel Hill, Reese Bassano from Prairieland, Makenzie Taylor from Chapel Hill, and Katie McGregor from Chapel Hill. After these students presented their speeches for the Finalist round the judges had to then choose the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion. The Grand Champion of the Senior Division is Reese Bassano from Prairieland and the Reserve Grand Champion of the Senior Division is Katie McGregor from Chapel Hill.

These students put in the hard work and dedication so their speeches sounded correct and they felt confident in their work as well. Some of these students will go on and compete in the Agricultural Speaking Contests for the Major shows that are coming up. These students have kicked off the Titus County Fair and did a wonderful job doing so.