This summer, Johnathan Laner, coach of the Wayne State College speech team, along with some of the team’s members, will be putting on their second annual speech camp for high school students in and around Wayne.  

“Last school year I got this wild idea to start a camp for speech kids,” Laner said. “We have a music camp, we have a CSI camp, and I was thinking of a way to make speech accessible to students during the summer.”  

At the camp, students will be working in small groups and one on one with staff to get a head start on their high school speech season.  

“A lot of times these kids are coming from large teams with limited coaching staff, so we started this speech camp,” Laner said.  

The camp involves a variety of different events, ranging from interpretation to public address. One objective is to help students work on speech-related skills such as writing, research, and delivery.  

“I had an area high school coach come in with a variety of scripts and we practiced how to “cut” or edit a script,” Laner said. “For the events with multiple people, we work on different ideas for blocking.”  

Depending on the event, the students will work on more specialized skills, such as using their script as a part of their body language. The work from last summer paid off for the kids as well.  

“I was down at state this year and all but one of the kids that participated made it to state and two groups were crowned state champion in their respective categories,” Laner said.  

In addition, Laner said speech is and has been popular in the area for quite some time and there were not many options for students near Wayne, other than UNL’s summer “Forensics Institute.”  

“I was trying to make a way for kids in this area to have that experience and to make it more affordable,” Laner said. “A lot of times these camps can be very expensive, and we are trying to make it as accessible as possible.”  

The camp will take place June 17-31 on the Wayne State College campus and is open to any high school student next school year. For more information, contact Johnathan Laner or go visit the WSC website.