WSC hosts forensics speech camp, introduces students to 'biggest passion'
WAYNE, Neb. -- "How can I help make forensics available so that everyone can get a decent start," said Jonathan Laner, director of Forensics at Wayne State College.
Wayne State College hosted its first-ever forensics speech camp, welcoming students in high school from all over the state on Thursday.
Laner said the program gives students the space to prepare their speeches before school starts.
"I knew, having coached high school speech before, that when you have limited coaching staff it's hard to get all of those events ready to go right away at the beginning of the year, so giving coaches the opportunity to send their students out, get a head start, so it's one less thing they have to worry about," Laner said.
Students were taught speech skills like choosing the right script, script cutting, and getting help to make them better speakers in time for their competitions.
The four-day camp is led by Laner as well as two students from WSC's speech team and allows students to commute every day or get the full experience and stay on campus in dorms.
"Just the conglomerate of all the areas coming together and forming a bond, as well as creating new connections with other speech kids across the state. As well as getting new insight on how to approach different topics," Laner said.
The brand-new camp is housed under WSC's speech program, which is fairly new itself, as it was started in 2021 with only eight students to start under Lamer's leadership.
Although, the idea for the summer camp came from Laner, being inspired by the music program starting its own summer program.
"Speech is probably the biggest passion I've ever had, so the fact that I get to help shape the young minds of high school students here in Nebraska; it's a great feeling," Laner said.
The forensics speech camp will be back next summer, and Laner said he hopes it will attract more students to make an impact.