Urbana FFA had multiple public speakers competing in career development events this year. These public speakers included JD Nelson, Cheyenne Gunsaulies, Billie Stiltner, Jared Weller and Ashlyn Dunn. JD Nelson was an Extemporaneous Speaker who was given 30 minutes prior to speaking to judges to research a randomly selected agriculture topic. After the 30 minutes the speaker presents the speech in front of the judges. Cheyenne, Billie and Jared Weller were advanced prepared speakers. For this type of speaking event each speaker has to compose a six to eight minute speech and present it by memory in front of the judges. Ashlyn Dunn participated in the freshman Creed Speaking contest. For this type of speaking contest she had to memorize the FFA Creed which is composed of five paragraphs about why you believe in the FFA.

The first contest was the county speaking contest Feb. 4 at Urbana High School. Ashlyn Dunn, JD Nelson and Jared Weller advanced on to sub district. During sub districts which was February 16th at Graham High School, Jared Weller advanced on to districts. Districts was on February 23rd at Buckeye Valley High School. Jared Weller placed 8th at districts with his prepared speech on “Climate Change and how we are going to feed 9.1 billion people by 2050”. Public speaking is an important skill to gain practice in so students can get a good head start in life as well as gain confidence. Congratulations to all participants!