BATTLE GROUND RESIDENT Emmah Ferguson, 14, has taken several top honors at area speech and debate competitions after joining the Hockinson High School Speech and Debate Team in 2012. In June, Emmah will compete at the National Forensic League National Competition in Birmingham, AL.
While most people become petrified at the thought of standing up in front of a crowd of people and delivering a speech, 14-year-old Hockinson High School sophomore Emmah Ferguson said she wasn’t even the “slightest bit nervous” the first time she gave a speech as a part of the Hockinson speech and debate team.
“The fact that I was so passionate about my topic really helped ease any nerves,” Ferguson said. “I would recommend that people speak about something that truly means something to them, so it’s more like telling a story than giving a speech.”
After Ferguson’s mom, Bethe, began suggesting that she join the speech and debate team at Hockinson High School, Emmah said she finally gave in and joined the club in October 2012. Both her brother and sister had participated in speech and debate with success, so she figured she would give it a shot as well.
Bethe said Emmah started out in novice oratory and novice Lincoln-Douglas debate. Novice is the level that everyone begins at and Emmah said Lincoln-Douglas debate is a debate about moral values. Original Oratory is an event in which students prepare an 8- to 10-minute memorized persuasive speech. The speech must be written by the orator and the topic is limitless. Emmah said her topic for this particular speech was trans-fat.
Because of Emmah’s success in the novice category, she then quickly moved up to the open category.
“Moving to open meant that I would start competing with everyone who had been competing with everyone who had been competing for at least a year,” Emmah said. “Moving up to open was a really big deal for me. Before my open tournament, I was terrified. It is unusual for a novice to enter open so quickly, but it was necessary if I wanted to get better. At my first open tournament, I placed third in Lincoln-Douglas, first in oratory and first in editorial commentary, which I was doing for the first time.”
At the state speech and debate tournament (known as the forensics tournament), Emmah took second in original oratory. The state tournament was held on March 2, and Emmah said she was “astounded” when she received second place.
“I thought I would get third or fourth at best,” she said. “Also, coming in second to Tyler Bieber from Ridgefield was quite an honor. I consider him to be the forensics god.”
“That (placing second) was pretty amazing for a kid who had been at it a few months,” Bethe said of her daughter.
Emmah also qualified to go to the National Forensic League National Competition in Birmingham, AL, in June. According to their website, the National Forensic League is America’s oldest and largest high school and middle school speech and debate honor society. The League has been around since 1925. Several well-known people are lifetime members of the National Forensic League, including Kelsey Grammer, Shelley Long, Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey and others.
Emmah said that although the June 16 competition will be tough, she is excited to compete with the country’s best youth speakers.
In addition to being a successful speech and debate youth, Emmah also maintains a 4.0 grade-point-averge (GPA), is a Sunday School teacher, a half-marathon runner and is a member of the Clark County Youth Commission. So far she has ran in the Vancouver USA Half Marathon and the EveryGirl’s Half Marathon in Ridgefield. Emmah said she started running in eighth grade in an effort to try and give herself some sort of “identity.”
“No matter how complicated life gets, I will never stop running,” she said.
Emmah teachers Sunday School at Congregation Kol Ami in Vancouver. She said she loves seeing the kids she teaches apply the knowledge that her and her mom have taught them. She also enjoys teaching her Jewish culture to young children, who will later teach their own.
As a member of the Clark County Youth Commission, Emmah serves on a citizens advisory board to the Clark County Board of Commissioners. The commissioners assign the youth a topic to focus on, and at the end of the year the youth members give them a policy report with
official recommendations.
In her spare time, Emmah said she loves to cook, read, shop, run, eat and watch Grey’s Anatomy - one of her favorite shows, second to Desperate Housewives. After high school, Emmah said she would love to attend Dartmouth University, but the University of Washington is also a university she might consider. She said she would love to be a doctor, but as she gets involved more with speech and debate, “law is looking more intriguing.”
Emmah’s father, Blair, is a veterinarian in Hazel Dell. Her 21-year-old brother, Zach, is a teacher and is on his way to law school in a couple of years, and her sister, Ruth, 18, attends the University of Washington.
