Laffin prevails in American Legion contest

It isn’t often that you meet a high school student who loves to talk about the U.S. Constitution or is as knowledgeable about it as Lovell High School student Riley Laffin.

Laffin recently entered the American Legion’s oratorical contest, a competition that offers participants an academic speaking challenge focused on the history of the U.S. Constitution and the responsibilities, rights and privileges of American citizenship.

 Laffin not only won the contest at the post level but the district and state levels, too, qualifying him to be the only student to represent the state of Wyoming at the national contest to be held May 17-19, in Hillsdale, Michigan, at Hillsdale College.

Young orators entering the contest earn some of the most generous college scholarships available to high school students, with more than $203,500 in scholarships awarded each year. The overall national contest winner gets a $25,000 scholarship. Second place takes home $22,500, and third gets $20,000. Each state winner who is certified into and participates in the national contest’s first round receives a $2,000 scholarship. Those who advance past the first round receive an additional $2,000 scholarship. The American Legion’s national organization awards the scholarships, which can be used at any college or university in the United States.

It was Laffin’s first time participating in the competition. In fact, he hasn’t done anything quite like this before; he hasn’t even taken a public speaking class or participated in his school’s speech and debate program. 

Laffin said he thinks his experience in musical performance was helpful, since it taught him techniques like how to project his voice, how not to sound nervous and how to memorize lines.

The fact that he already has an interest in the Constitution and has studied it extensively on his own was a real time-saver for him. His naturally calm demeanor was also a plus. He said he was more nervous practicing in front of his family than he was in front of the judges.

Speaking passionately about the U.S. Constitution comes naturally for Laffin and he has a lot of practice doing it, as it’s a frequent topic around the dinner table in his very patriotic family home. 

Both of Laffin’s parents are retired military. His mother Nicolle, an active member of the local chapter of the American Legion, brought the contest to Laffin’s attention. 

“Mom brought up that there’s this American Legion oratorical contest, with good scholarship money, and she said, since I’ve already given so many good speeches at the dinner table, it would be great for me,” explained Laffin.

One of Laffin’s strengths pointed out by the judges at the district competition is his ability to simplify what can seem like a complicated topic, making it very accessible to his audience. He said civics history is his favorite subject and an app made available to students in his civics class at school helped him better understand the basic principles of the Constitution, along with many hours of study.

“I realize that, written back then, the Constitution is complicated to translate now, but the app on our iPads gave us a simplified version helping us understand what it means,” he explained. “It was a good start.”

Laffin used this same simplification technique to synthesize the information in his prepared speech, which focused on the first amendment and the need for many sources of information in a democracy. Using common everyday analogies, his prepared speech was simple and easy for his audience to understand.

Sometimes practicing up to nine hours a day, Laffin memorized not only his 10-minute prepared speech but four additional five-minute speeches in preparation for the assigned portion of the competition. He said he took advantage of the Internet to research each topic in depth and brain-stormed ideas with his parents, who are also very knowledgeable on the subject.

“We don’t really argue when we discuss it,” Laffin chuckled. “We just agree very loudly.”

Laffin gave his speech for the first time in Lovell at the Robert Boyd Stewart American Legion Post 11 in early March. Since Laffin was the only contestant, it afforded him the opportunity for invaluable feedback from the judges, which he incorporated a week later into his presentation at the American Legion District Four competition, hosted by Greybull’s American Legion Post 32, at Greybull High School, where he competed and won against Powell High School student Aubrey Johnson. Laffin went on to win the state competition one week later in Powell against Green River High School student Lillian Duncan.

He said the judges in the first contest told him he moved around too much, so he toned it down a bit for the district competition. The judges in the district competition gave him positive feedback about how he structured his speech to make it easy for the average person to understand. Laffin gave the same prepared speech in the first three contests with minor modifications based on feedback from the judges. He will be required to give the same speech again at the national contest in May. 

Laffin, who enjoys writing fiction in his spare time, thought writing the speeches was a relatively easy task. He said the most difficult challenge was memorizing so many speeches.

As an added bonus, Laffin got to meet Gov. Mark Gordon, who happened to be in Powell visiting military veterans on the day of the state competition. He said he was awestruck meeting such a high-level state official.

“I knew I would have the opportunity to meet the governor, but I was still shocked to actually meet him,” said Laffin. “I could barely form a sentence as I shook his hand.”

Laffin will compete against 53 contestants at the national competition. Last year, Emma Johnson, a student from Powell High School, placed third at Nationals, winning a $20,000 scholarship. Laffin hopes to do as well or better. The American Legion will pay for his travel to Michigan, plus one companion. His mother Nicolle will be accompanying him on the trip. 

Laffin, a senior at Lovell High School, plans to attend Northwest College after graduation to study business, with the goal of opening his own auto repair business someday. His winnings so far include a scholarship that will pay for his first semester of college, taking him one step closer to that dream.