American Legion High School Oratorical Scholarship Program

A Constitutional Speech Contest

Post 61 is honored to support an inspiring group of students at both Yellville-Summit (YSHS) and Cotter High School (CHS) who have chosen to participate in the Constitutional Speech Contest. Nine students attending YSHS and one student from CHS. All are corps members of YSHS JROTC program under the tutilege of Travis Risely, their instuctor. It's an amazing level of participation in the oratorical program here in Yellville and it compares with the combined participation of the other 117 American Legion posts across the state of Arkansas. For some reason, participation has declined since 2020.Since this past December, Post 61 has held several speaking sessions where the competitors have sharpened their public speaking skills to advance to the state competition in Little Rock.

Arkansas' Department Competition

Annabelle Offerman and Sophia Ketchum competed in the state-wide oratorical event held in Little Rock. While they are not heading to Hillsdale College for the national finals, both performed well and have gained valuable public speaking experience. We look forward to seeing  them and hearing from them again for the 2027 competition. 

The students competing at the Arkansas state-wide oratorical competition.

The Speech Competitors

Bravo to the entire group of Yellville-Summit High School JROTC that participated in this event!