2024 Grand Forks County 4-H Communication Arts event winners named, 4-H doing well in the county
Mar. 26—MANVEL, N.D. — Winners of the 2024 Grand Forks County 4-H Communication Arts event have been named and will be going on to the district competition against Walsh and Pembina counties.
The public speaking event saw 50 students showing off their public speaking skills, one of the bigger events for Grand Forks County's 4-H, NDSU Extension Agent MaKayla Fleming said.
"Overall, the event went really well," she said.
North Dakota's 4-H Youth Development is a form of education focused on experiential learning. The communication arts category focuses on public presentations, such as speeches, to enhance students' communication skills. Fleming said contests for the category can be impromptu speeches given to the student at the event, or practiced for about a month or two beforehand. Some of the practiced performances include interpretive readings, a student creating their own speech or teaching the audience about or how to do something.
There are three age sections a student can be in. Cloverbuds are students aged five to seven, and their speeches are non-competitive — each student gets a participation ribbon. Juniors are students aged eight to 12 and seniors are aged 13 to 18. The older students are expected to make longer, more polished speeches, and sometimes use those they perform in their schools' individual speech programs.
The state of 4-H in Grand Forks County is good, Fleming said, and has bounced back to normal since COVID. There are around 200 students involved in 4-H in the county.
"It's kind of hard to compete against all the school sports and stuff to get that enrollment number higher," she said. "But, the program's grown quite a bit in the last four years."
The winners of the communication arts event are below.
The Senior Grand Champion winners are: Agnes Carlson for General Demonstration; Davis Braun for Illustrated Talk; Mattia Braun for Impromptu; Hillary McSparron and the team of Ella and Caffrey Abler for Interpretive Reading; Sam Bussian and Michael Komprood for Prepared Speech; and Ambrea Meyer for Presentation Software.
The Junior Grand Champion winners are: Fredrrick Stefanich and the team of Esther Carlson, Nonna Bussian and Ella Komprood for Dramatic Presentation; the team of Luther and Liam Hoverson for Fish Tank; Alisma Meyer for Food Demonstration; Caffrey Abler for Interpretive Reading; and Luther Hoverson for Presentation Software.
Honorable mentions include: the Junior team of Lily Call and Philmoena Juve for Braodcasting; Senior Elija Call for Illustrated Talk; and Junior Nonna Bussian for Interpretive Reading. Reserve Champions are: Senior Rose Kraemer for Impromptu; Junior Thomas Juve and Senior Clara Bussian for Interpretive Reading; and Senior Michael Komprood for Presentation Software.
