Students attend speech festival

Some 400 students from 200 Iowa high schools will showcase their talents today at the All-State Speech Festival at the University of Northern Iowa. U-N-I communications studies professor Jon Hall is organizing the event.Hall says the students who take part in this competition will follow a variety of career paths, from law to biology.This is the 23rd year the festival has been held at the Cedar Falls campus. It’s expected to draw at least four thousand visitors, from students to spectators. The speech festival features many styles of competition, including poetry, prose, acting, storytelling and spontaneous speaking. The events get underway at 8:30 a-m in the West Gym and all performances are free and open to the public.