Junior Movisha Servai is a first-year member of the KHS Speech Team. But looking at the season she had, most people would never have expected that. After not sending anyone to the state speech meet for many years, Servai advanced and represented KHS.
“For me, the highlight of competing at state was the fact that I even qualified for state. This is my first year on the team, and I have been competing in varsity against people who have much more experience than I do,” she said. “I also learned that it’s been years since anyone from KHS went to state for speech, and I felt proud that I was able to accomplish this.”
Servai chose an excerpt from The Lord of the Rings for her competition piece and spent time finetuning it with one of the speech coaches, Stacia Siefert.
“I had to make sure that my transitions from character to character were smooth and decipherable. We also worked on my tone and my change in voice at different sections in the piece to reflect the mood,” Servai said.
Even though this was her first year on the speech team, Servai is no stranger to public speaking, something that helped her when joining the team.
“I love speaking in front of a crowd,” she said. “I joined the speech team because it gave me a chance to basically put on a performance, since I chose to participate in an interpretive event as part of the team.”
The skills Servai has developed through the speech team are skills that she can apply to in-class projects and presentations. For those reasons, she would encourage others to consider joining the speech team.
“It’s not just about winning awards. Rather, the experience you gain will carry you throughout a lifetime.”
