Press Release from American Legion
The Stephen H Nipp Post 143 of the American Legion invites Kootenai and surrounding county’s high school students to compete in the 2025 Annual American Legion High School Oratorical Scholarship Program. The invitation is extended by Post Oratorical Chairman Vic Parrish and open to high school students from private, public, charter, or homeschool. Winners will earn scholarship money and a chance to compete in national finals.
The subject in the prepared oration portion of the contest must be about some phase of the Constitution of the United States, emphasizing the duties and obligations of a citizen to the U.S. government. The prepared oration must be the original effort of each contestant and must be 8-10 minutes long.
Three competitions are occurring in Idaho: ours at the Post level, a district-level competition will follow, culminating in a state-level contest in February. The local contest will be on December 21, 2024. Applications must be submitted by December 11, 2024. Local prizes are $500 and $250.
In addition to the awards by winners of the various elimination rounds of competition, college scholarships of $25,000, $22,500, and $20,000 will be awarded to the first through third places in the national finals. Each state winner who competes in the national contest’s first round will receive a $2,000 scholarship. Participants in the second round who do not advance to the national final round will receive an additional $2,000 scholarship. The top three youth orators who have won all previous elimination rounds of the contest will vie for top honors in the
national competition in April 2025 in Indianapolis.
The American Legion will pay the expenses of state winners at the national contest.
High school students interested in entering the competition will find complete rules and contest information at www.legion.org/oratorical.
Please email TopNuke@icloud.com for a contest application.
