FAIRBURY - High schools frequently host college signing days for students participating in things like football and soccer; field hockey and softball; and even things like fencing and swimming. 

But a signing day for someone participating in forensics and speech? That's certainly unique. But that's the event that Fairbury High School hosted this week for the first time in the school's history. And it's where Isabella Ausk formally declared her intention to compete on the speech team at Concordia University in Seward.  

“I’m really excited to be able to continue this activity in college, because when I was thinking last year about my sister’s season ending, I was like, ‘This is going to be me next year, and I don’t think I’m quite ready to give this up yet,’” Ausk said. 

Concordia is one of eight universities in the state that sponsor collegiate speech. It’s a full-fledged extracurricular university activity, a team that provides scholarships for prospective students and competes in events across the country, just like a varsity sports team would.  

“When I toured Concordia, I talked to their professors, they were really excited to have me there and made me feel at home,” said Ausk. “And when I talked with the speech coach, she was super excited to have me there, and I decided this is the place I want to be.” 

And for Izzy and her coaches, this first of its kind signing day helps to show that there are pathways to college even for people who don't participate in a more traditional sport in high school, especially for an activity like this that helps to teach skills that are directly applicable to the rest of the student's life. 

“A lot of people have a fear of public speaking, and I think that’s definitely understandable,” said Malia Frerking, Concordia’s head speech coach. “The analogy I like to use is we all drive cars, cars are an important part of American society. But if we were all expected to drive cars but there was no driving instruction, there was no driver’s licensing, driving a car would be a much more frightening and intense experience than it currently is. And so speech is like driver’s class for public speaking: it encourages you to learn the skills of public speaking so that it’s something you are able to do without it being something you need to worry about.” 

And Fairbury’s administration treated this signing day just like they would for someone declaring their intention to play on a more traditional collegiate team. 

“This is our first signing that we’ve done since I’ve been here,” said Aaron Leidel, the coach of Fairbury’s speech team. “It’s different from what we’re used to, we’re used to signing for sports like baseball, basketball football... so doing it for an activity, an NSAA-sponsored activity that they can go on and do in college I think is really important for kids to see in Fairbury, but also around the area as well. This is something you can progress in and go do, not just in high school but in college, and also get scholarships to help afford school as well.” 

“The history of speech and forensics goes on for a really long time, but it’s really been seen as a club or auxiliary activity, so to see it given the same kind of legitimacy and importance that things like basketball or volleyball would get is really awesome and exciting for the activity,” said Frerking, who was a member of the Concordia speech squad before becoming its head coach. 

Speech and debate certainly run in the Ausk family, which was well represented at Thursday’s signing ceremony. Both of Izzy’s parents competed in speech in high school, and then met at a speech meet in college. Their children then competed together on Fairbury’s speech team for three years, which has now opened the door for Izzy to continue to pursue an activity she loves after high school just like her parents did. 

“I did speech with my sister for my first three years, and then she graduated I saw her sign the podium, which is something all the seniors get to do every year – and I realized that that’s going to be me, and I’m not ready for my experience with speech to be over. And I was like, ‘I really hope I can continue doing this because I really like this activity and I really feel like I can do good with this.”