Three Pleasantville High School students earned All-State nominations from the Iowa High School Speech Association this winter and will perform at the Individual All-State Festival next week.
Receiving the most prestigious honor given to individual high school speech performers were Elizabeth Goodale and Poet Nickel in Literary Program and Rhya Cowden in Prose. Cowden, who was Pleasantville’s lone participant at the All-State Festival last year, says she is excited to see kids she has met at previous competitions perform and to have teammates joining her in performing this year.
“There’s a few people I met at All-State last year that I never got to see perform, and I’m excited to hopefully maybe see them perform this year. And this year I’m just really glad to have some of my teammates go with me. I think that’s a really new, cool, fun experience and I’m just really excited to perform.”
The 2024 All-State Individual Speech Festival will be held on Monday, March 25th at the University of Northern Iowa. Hear more from the All-State Individual Speech students from Pleasantville on Today’s In Touch with South Central Iowa. Find a full list of area All-State nominees below. Members of the Pella and Pella Christian All-State speech groups will be featured soon on Let’s Talk Pella.
Pella:
Performing
- Alex DeMuth: Spontaneous Speaking
- Aurelia Zylstra: Storytelling
- Kolton Messer: Acting
- Luci Hopkins: After Dinner Speaking
- Olivia Hood: Solo Musical Theatre
- Tiffani Thatcher: Original Oratory
- Ryan Sales: Improvisational Acting
- Sibley Rhoten: Prose
Non-Performing
- Alex DeMuth: After Dinner Speaking
- Luci Hopkins: Solo Musical Theatre
- Ryan Sales: Prose
Pella Christian:
Performing
- Abby Dart: Acting and Solo Musical Theatre
- Cassiday Bos: Poetry
- Mia Andringa: Storytelling
Pleasantville:
Performing
- Elizabeth Goodale: Literary Program
- Katherine Nickel: Literary Program
- Rhya Cowden: Prose
Norwalk:
Performing
- Sabrina Hautekeete: Reviewing
Southeast Warren:
Performing
- Isabell Olasasky: Prose
- John Thompson: Radio News Announcing
Non-Performing
- Isabell Olasasky: Reviewing