Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, schools are shifting from the traditional atmosphere of face-to-face instruction to online interaction. Educators seem to agree that the resiliency of students is essential to their success.

Fairmont Area Schools English teacher and speech coach Kathleen Walker shared a story about some of her students displaying resiliency in full force.

“While the Minnesota State High School League has shut down pretty much everything, my speech team is also a part of a different society where they do a national competition, and they didn’t cancel that,” she said.

“So I had two juniors who qualified for what they’re now calling ‘virtual nationals.’ So Fairmont’s history has about three national qualifiers and now this is our fourth, and nationals are a huge thing in the speech community.”

Walker had 10 speech competitors loading onto vans on March 12 for the annual National Speech and Debate Association’s National Qualifying Tournament.

“We were just about to drive to the Cities when I got a call from our tournament director that our tournament had to be postponed,” she said. “Needless to say, we were crushed. This tournament is, for many, the most exciting opportunity in their speech career: a chance to qualify for nationals in the summer.”

Subsequently, two students — Tabitha Thatcher and Isabell Geiger — qualified for a duo event for the virtual nationals.

“The thing about them is they are best friends and they’ve been doing speech since seventh grade,” Walker said. “I knew them as 12-year-olds, and they decided after their first year doing individual events … to do duo together.

“Just watching them grow and get better has been amazing,” Walker added. “The team knows them as twins and they’re like one person. They work so hard and duo is very difficult to do. Unlike actors in a play, you can’t look or touch as you play your characters. So you have to choreograph it in a way that you don’t interact like that.

“So it’s just a part of speech that has been really fun for them to keep getting better and challenging themselves. At all of our regional tournaments around the area, they won first place at almost every tournament this year. Then at the really big tournaments they were still in semifinals.

“They went to state for the first time last year and they also were alternates to nationals last year as well. What I know about these girls is that they are ruthlessly competitive but so sweet. Everyone on their team looks up to them and they’re always working to be better. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve made it as far as they have and I couldn’t think of two girls more ready for the challenge.”

There is one remaining obstacle for the girls. Walker said social distancing may prevent the pair from performing their presentation.

“With a duo, they have to be with each other to perform. So what the association told is that by May 10 they’re going to tell us if we can do duo at nationals. So barring any restrictions, they are going to be able to record their duo and submit it to nationals for judging and to see if they make it to any of the final rounds.”

Three other students — Ameya Komaragiri, Apoorva Komaragiri and Weston Loughmiller — did not qualify for nationals but earned semifinal rankings.