Mt. Pleasant’s Sarai Sanchez soars to All-State Speech Festival with powerful storytelling

MT. PLEASANT — Mt. Pleasant High School junior Sarai Sanchez’s hard work this speech season paid off as her performance at the state-level Iowa High School Speech Association contest at North Scott High School means she will perform at the Individual All-State Festival at the University of Northern Iowa at the end of the month.

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Sanchez earned this opportunity with her original storytelling piece, Little Sailor. Reflecting on her progress, she noticed a significant improvement from district to state performances.

"I felt that my state performance was significantly stronger compared to my district performance," she said. "Going into the state competition, I gained a lot of advice and confidence from the district level, which helped me feel more comfortable and in control."

She waited anxiously for her Division I rating at state but felt confident in her performance.

"My results were the last of the teams to be posted, so you can imagine the anxious waiting we had to endure," Sanchez said. " Truly the realization follows directly after the performance, in which I found peace with myself knowing that I performed to the best of my abilities. Seeing the straight Division I rating most definitely gave me excitement, but there is one dread that comes with it: waiting for the arrival of All-State nominations."

Even though Sanchez received the top rating of Division I from all three of her judges at the state level, her future performing at the All-State Festival would not be secured without a nomination.

Instead of sitting behind a computer screen and repeatedly hitting refreshing as she waited to hear if she was nominated, Sanchez kept up with her busy schedule and attended her first soccer practice of the season.

“Eventually, I had the opportunity to look at my phone, but before I had a chance to pull up the website it would be posted on, I saw notifications that both my speech coaches had messaged me multiple times,” Sanchez recalled. “At once I realized that they would not be reaching out so anxiously to give you bad news.”

Indeed, Sanchez found out she had not only nabbed one of the high-sought-after, but difficult to achieve, nominations qualifying her for All-State, but also a performance slot.

"I was extremely grateful and ecstatic," she said.

Finding out she had received all Division I ratings at state contest this year reminds Sanchez of a similar experience.

“During my freshman year, I received straight ones for prose, however, did not receive any All-State nominations,” she said. “This is why, at times, I tend to dismiss the hope of receiving any nominations.”

Despite not receiving that nomination her first year, Sanchez is not new the All-State Festival. Last year she took her review performance to UNI for the festival and regained some of that confidence initially lost her freshman year.

Sanchez has persevered through challenges in her speech journey. As a freshman, she earned straight Division I ratings in prose but did not receive an All-State nomination. However, her sophomore year, she

Now returning to All-State in storytelling, she sees the festival as a celebration rather than a competition.

"All-State is not a competition but rather is commonly deemed as a festival," she explained. “Rather than competing, performers celebrate IHSSA by showcasing their pieces to people from all over Iowa. It is as much a privilege for the public as it is for the performers. When it comes to performing at All-State, the nerves of qualifying with ratings is nonexistent, rather it is replaced with the feeling of knowing you were chosen to be there, nominated to be there. Any all-stater would tell you it is an honor to represent their category and school for all of Iowa! “

Sanchez will head to UNI March 31 to perform Little Sailor one last time among the best of the best in the Iowa High School Speech Association.

Sanchez’s dedication to speech extends beyond her performances. She serves as a member of RISE (Rise IHSSA Student Ensemble), a student-led group that represents Iowa's speech participants and advises IHSSA committees. Through RISE, she has gained leadership experience and strengthened her communication skills.

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"RISE has taught me a great deal about leadership and the importance of counseling with others," she said. "As a RISE member, I am required to fulfill duties at each competition during speech season, each of which allowed me to further develop my communication skills with students I meet from all over Iowa."

At the end of last speech season Sanchez was invited by a coach to apply to be on the 24-25 student RISE Student Ensemble. Out of 144,000 students that had the opportunity to apply, she was very happy to hear she had been granted the privilege with 11 others to serve.

As a RISE member, Sanchez also will take on a community engagement project. This is a project in which each member is charged with designing and carrying out a unique project that engages and their community and brings about an enlightening social change, according to Sanchez.

While Sanchez says she still is developing her community engagement project, she can already see the opportunity as an impactful one.

“Even if it is only 12 students doing the work, it is affecting large scales all around our state, and even farther,” Sanchez said. “Each year my director Stacy Hansen, executive director of IHSSA, shares the impacts of these projects with states around our nation. Thus, more and more states take on the same opportunity, to positively influence all people and communities around them. Speech is not just about speaking, but about bringing about change, in the best way possible.”

Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com