This past weekend proved that Strathcona Tweedsmuir students have a way with words.

STS hosted the Provincial Speech Tournament this Saturday, February 4, and welcomed 118 students from Calgary, Edmonton and Canmore schools.

Director of speech and debate at STS, Lennard Fink says the students held their own against the competition.

"In the middle school section we had three students that qualified for the national tournament and in high school we had two. So there is a total of nine positions in Alberta to be filled for the national tournament and our school filled five of those so we were quite proud of that."

Students had the choice of performing original oratory, impromptu, poetry, prose, solo acting, and duet acting and on top of that high school students had to prepare a five minute speech if they placed first in their respective category.

Upper school students at STS; Bryn Stewart and Ben Spilak placed 1st and 2nd in the overall speak off and will be among the top 60 students in the country at nationals next school year.

Fink says he and the school were very proud of the outcome.

"It's really exciting and very rewarding, our students work really hard at this. Speech is a really big part of our school and it's quite prestigious to the students to do well at tournaments and their peers recognize the importance of speech. So it's really exciting, especially when we hosted it at our school."

And not only are these titles nice now but Fink says it will benefit the student's futures.

"In terms of their resume it's pretty valuable because the schools our students apply to most of them have really top marks, as most of our students do. So it's just something that distinguishes them and gives them credibility with critical thinking and the ability to communicate effectively and that's what many universities are looking for."

The high school students will have to wait until next year to head to Winnipeg for nationals but as for the middle school finalists, they will head to Vancouver this May for a shot at the national title.

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