See the Stark County students who are headed to nationals for academic competitions

The Repository
·4 min read
Several Hoover High School students will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. Pictured are: Front Row: Drew Berkshire, Sabrina Estevez, Mady Beckel, Emma Curd, Ava Wadley. Back Row: Cade VanNatta, Kyle Fitz-Patrick, Joelle Morgan, Sean Lowry
Several Hoover High School students will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. Pictured are: Front Row: Drew Berkshire, Sabrina Estevez, Mady Beckel, Emma Curd, Ava Wadley. Back Row: Cade VanNatta, Kyle Fitz-Patrick, Joelle Morgan, Sean Lowry

Classes may be over this school year but dozens of Stark County high school students will represent their schools in national competitions this summer.

Students — either competing individually or as a team — from Alliance, Hoover, Jackson, Lake, Louisville, McKinley, Northwest and Perry high schools have qualified for nationals and will be traveling out of state to test their knowledge and skills in competitions for Speech and Debate, SkillsUSA and Junior Achievement of America.

Canton South High School students also recently returned from their Business Professionals of America national competition.

Here is a roundup of the students and their national competitions:

Speech and debate national qualifiers

Stark County's 42 qualifiers to the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament will compete June 12-17 in Louisville, Kentucky. About 10% of speech and debate students nationwide qualify to compete at nationals, which offers 24 different competitive events and is the largest academic competition in the United States.

More about speech and debate winners: Five questions with ... speech and debate national winner Abreanna Blose

National qualifiers include:

Program Oral Interpretation

Spencer Wright of Perry High School

Cade VanNatta of Hoover High School

Humorous Interpretation

Tim Tasseff of Perry

Kyle Woods of Perry

Diontae Threats of Perry

Several Perry High School students will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. Pictured are: Row 1: Luke Wagner, Lily Stuart, Elena Stearns, Tim Tasseff. Row 2: Steve Bossler, Brooke Lieser, Nicholas Thacker, Spencer Wright, Morgan Nicholson, Regan Slish. Row 3: Kyle Woods, Garrett Laubacher, Diontae Threats, Hayden Frazee, Zoe Davala. Brock Norris is not pictured.

Dramatic Interpretation

Drew Berkshire of Hoover

Ava Wadley of Hoover

Taylor Vickers of McKinley High School

Taylor Vickers of McKinley High School will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the Dramatic Interpretation category.
Taylor Vickers of McKinley High School will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the Dramatic Interpretation category.

Duo Interpretation

Garrett Laubacher and Steven Bossler of Perry

Joelle Morgan and Kyle Fitzpatrick of Hoover

Several Jackson High School students will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. Pictured include, from left: Snehal Choudhury, Leila Hamdan, Max Leistman, Jace Lutz, Shiv Nagajothi, Divya Shanmugam, Jade Hooper, Ishan Tripathy and Angelena Manova.
Several Jackson High School students will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. Pictured include, from left: Snehal Choudhury, Leila Hamdan, Max Leistman, Jace Lutz, Shiv Nagajothi, Divya Shanmugam, Jade Hooper, Ishan Tripathy and Angelena Manova.

United States Extemporaneous Speaking

Shiv Nagajothi of Jackson High School

Jade Hooper of Jackson

Zoe Davala of Perry

Original Oratory

Brock Norris of Perry

Elena Stearns of Perry

Morgan Nicholson of Perry

International Extemporaneous Speaking

Mady Beckel of Hoover

Lily Stuart of Perry

Snehal Choudhury of Jackson

Policy Debate

Nick Thacker and Regan Slish of Perry

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Leila Hamdan of Jackson

Sean Lowry of Hoover

Jordan Schwartz of Alliance High School

Jordan Schwartz of Alliance High School will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate category.
Jordan Schwartz of Alliance High School will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate category.

Public Forum Debate

Luke Wagner and Brooke Lieser of Perry

Jace Lutz and Max Leistman of Jackson

Big Questions Debate

Noah Capo of Louisville High School

Four Louisville High School students will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. Pictures are: Beth Balough (World Schools Debate), Noah Capo (Big Questions Debate), Maya Baxter (World Schools Debate), Jessie Stewart (World Schools Debate).
Four Louisville High School students will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. Pictures are: Beth Balough (World Schools Debate), Noah Capo (Big Questions Debate), Maya Baxter (World Schools Debate), Jessie Stewart (World Schools Debate).

Senate Debate

Emma Curd of Hoover

House of Representatives Debate

Mary Paydock of Northwest High School

Hayden Frazee of Perry

Sabrina Estevez of Hoover

Elliott Kim of Indian Valley High School will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the World Schools Debate category.
Elliott Kim of Indian Valley High School will compete in the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the World Schools Debate category.

World Schools Debate

Elliott Kim of Indian Valley High School

Jessie Stewart of Louisville

Ishan Tripathy of Jackson

Beth Balough of Louisville

Christopher Rhodes II of New Philadelphia High School

Divya Shanmugam of Jackson

Maya Baxter of Louisville

Angelena Manova of Jackson

Christopher Rhodes II of New Philadelphia High School will compete in theNational Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the World Schools Debate category.
Christopher Rhodes II of New Philadelphia High School will compete in theNational Speech and Debate Association Tournament in the World Schools Debate category.

Speech and debate state champions

Stark County schools also had four speech and debate state champions this year. They are:

  • Ava Wadley of Hoover High School for dramatic interpretation

  • Tayleigh Folden of Louisville High School for declamation

  • Kyle Woods of Perry High School for humorous interpretation

  • Luke Wagner and Brooke Lieser of Perry High School for public forum debate

McKinley High School engineering students Collin Morrison, center, and Kaden Smith, right, will compete in the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference. They are pictured with McKinley engineering teacher Chad Weaver.
McKinley High School engineering students Collin Morrison, center, and Kaden Smith, right, will compete in the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference. They are pictured with McKinley engineering teacher Chad Weaver.

Skills USA competition

McKinley High School engineering students Collin Morrison and Kaden Smith will compete in the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, during the week of June 20.

The two students earned the honor to compete in the national competition after taking home the gold medal at the annual SkillsUSA Ohio State Championships in Columbus.

The students competed in Robotics: Urban Search and Rescue, a competition that consisted of designing and building a remote-controlled robot to locate simulated ordnances within a structure. The driver of the vehicle could only monitor the course through a closed-circuit monitoring system.

Junior Achievement

Three student teams — Brain Wave and InnoVistics from Hoover High School and Sababa from Lake High School — have been selected to attend the Junior Achievement National Student Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C.

This is only the second time in the summit's history that three companies from a single area are part of the 15 teams of finalists.

More about Junior Achievement: Students with high school companies preparing for Junior Achievement expo

During the three-day event that begins June 19, the students will present their companies, participate in a live trade show and network with peers and industry experts from across the country.

Canton South High School students competed in the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference in May. Picture are, from left: Carmella Herrington, Elyana Johnson, Tori Newman, Abbie Bergert, MaKenna Daniels and Trevor Paul.
Canton South High School students competed in the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference in May. Picture are, from left: Carmella Herrington, Elyana Johnson, Tori Newman, Abbie Bergert, MaKenna Daniels and Trevor Paul.

Business Professionals of America

Four Canton South High School career-technical education students placed in the Top 10 at the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference in May.

Trevor Paul, a senior, placed sixth Advanced Desktop Publishing. Canton South's Virtual Branding Team, which includes Tori Newman, Elayna Johnson and Carmella Herrington, earned a sixth-place finish for their event and a second-place finish in the Virtual Contest Showcase.

MaKenna Daniels, a senior, also competed in advanced desktop publishing. Abigail Bergert, a senior, competed at nationals in graphic design promotion. She had earned first place in the category at the state competition.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark students vie in national speech and debate, Skills USA and BPA