ANDREW KUBAS

Art focus: Speech

Art activities: Speech, band and pit band for musical

Year: Freshman

Age: 15

GPA: 4.0

Favorite subjects: Mathematics

Most memorable fine arts achievement: Qualifying for the National Forensic League speech tournament in 2004 in Salt Lake City

Artist most admired: None

Favorite movie: "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

Favorite TV program: "King of the Hill"

Favorite song: "Get What You Need" by Jet

Parents: Jeff and Stephanie Kubas of Baxter

CAPTION:Franklin Junior High School ninth-grader Andrew Kubas was named Fine Arts Student of the Week for his accomplishments in speech. (Dispatch Photo by Jennifer Stockinger)

BYLINE1:By JENNIFER STOCKINGER

BYLINE2:Staff Writer

Andrew Kubas set the bar for his speech career before he's even stepped foot into Brainerd High School as a student.

Kubas, a freshman at Franklin Junior High School in Brainerd, has competed with both the junior high and varsity speech teams and he won numerous awards this year at invitational speech tournaments. He set the bar for himself when he qualified for the National Forensic League tournament in June in Salt Lake City and for the Minnesota State High School League tournament Saturday at Centennial High School in Circle Pines. Kubas was the only Brainerd student to qualify for state.

For his accomplishments, Kubas was named Fine Arts Student of the Week for speech. He also was named an All-Conference Speaker at the Central Lakes Conference tournament, where he won first place in extemporaneous speaking.

"Andrew has honed his speaking skills to the point where he is a top contender among upper class contestants," said Jan Cummings, high school speech team coach, who nominated Kubas for the award.

Kubas has been involved in speech since sixth grade. He then lived in Walker.

"It (speech) was a really big thing in Walker," said Kubas. "And it was something for me to do.

"The first speech I gave I was nervous. But after a few times it was no big deal."

His first speech was in the humor category and he had to do a cremation of a character named Sam McGee. He said it was hard as a sixth-grader to prepare and give the speech because he didn't know what to expect.

Kubas said his interest remained in speech. He said he enjoys meeting a variety of people and the long bus rides to the meets.

In eighth grade, Kubas moved to Brainerd and he said it was a big transition. He said the Walker speech team had about 60-70 students, compared to about seven students on the Brainerd speech team.

In Brainerd, he competed at the junior varsity and varsity level in the extemporaneous speaking category, which is where a student speaks about a current event.

Kubas said each meet is a surprise because he never knows what his speech will be about. When he gets to a speech meet he has to draw three questions from a hat and choose one question for his speech. After choosing a question he has 30 minutes to prepare and memorize a seven-minute speech.

"It can be stressful if you don't have the information," said Kubas. "You need to watch a lot of news and do research on the economy."

Kubas said his family subscribes to the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Economist magazine, resources he uses to keep up on the news. He spends about an hour a week reading the materials.

"It helps a lot," he said. "There are a lot of current events. ... I'm almost always prepared for a question (at speech meets)."

Kubas said his strong area is the economy. He said President Bush's energy plan is confusing to him.

Kubas' strongest skill in speech is his ability to speak fluently, he said. He said he needs to research more of the vast current events, rather than just the major ones, such as the economy.

Kubas took third place in sectionals to qualify for state competition. He was surprised to have qualified since he was only a freshman. However, he was confident going into the meet after qualifying for nationals in March. He gave six speeches in two days and took second place to qualify for nationals.

One of the questions he had to address in the qualifying tournament for nationals was, "Is the United States economy headed for a real recovery in 2004?" Kubas broke down the question into three areas in which he addressed how the high unemployment rate would affect the economy, how the budget deficit would affect the economy and how a poor performance by the U.S. dollar would hurt the economy.

Before June, Kubas plans to read about as many current events as possible to prepare for nationals.

"There will a lot of good competition there and many people will be watching me," said Kubas. "But I'll be prepared. It'll be a new experience."

Honorable mentions:

Lisbeth Bergman, senior, art: Bergman's adviser said, "Lisbeth's work shows great understanding of what is expected and she has taken initiative to learn more about different styles of painting. She also has great use of resources and time."

John Nelson, senior, A Cappella Choir/Bards: Nelson has been in a cappella choir for two years and in Bards for three years. He also is a member of Windfall, Barnyard Animals and a soloist with Bards.