Name: Madison Grady
Hometown: Whitefish, Montana
Relationship status: Single
Graduation year: Spring 2018
Who’s Talkin’ here?
Madison Grady is a sophomore at Boise State, double majoring in political science and communication. An aspiring lawyer, she is determined to attend law school after her college career. She doubles as a ski instructor to little kids at Bogus Basin on the weekends as well as a student, speech and debate member on the Talkin’ Broncos team. Grady’s journey started five years ago when she did debate for Whitefish High School’s Speech and Debate team. Grady’s debate career continued when she applied to Boise State and stumbled across Talkin’ Broncos.
How much Talkin’ is going on here?
Grady is constantly working on prepping and perfecting her speeches for the speech and debate tournaments that the team attends a few times throughout the semester. Talkin’ Broncos has mandatory practice for about 3 hours twice a week plus weekend workshops, so they can be at the top of their game and be the best of the best, which they actually are. Talkin’ Broncos have been the National Pi Kappa Phi champions two years in a row. According to Grady, the first semester they go to the Northwest tournaments;a lot of these tournaments are in Oregon. Then in the second semester they go to the Midwest and compete nationally; the big tournaments with BIG school names like Harvard and Northwestern
Why the “ Talkin’ ” Broncos?
“I would encourage people to try out for the team because the skills you learn can help you tremendously in the future,” Grady said. “The skills you gain in from doing forensics in college is nothing compared to what you learn in a classroom.” She mentions the coolest part of Talkin’ Broncos is getting to go to tournaments and meeting new people from different universities from around the United States. Who wouldn’t want to travel, speak, debate, and meet new people all in one setting?! A great experience for one to gain life and professional skills for anything or anywhere one wants and chooses to go in life, Grady says being a member talks you beyond the classroom and into a place where you can learn to be a speaker and debater in a world, where we all want our voice to be heard by others.
What’s Talkin’ Broncos beyond the stage?
“I know it is cheesy to say we are like a family, because a lot of sport teams say that, but we really are! Not a lot of people understand what we do. It is easy to tell a person that you are a soccer or football player, but when you say you do speech and debate, not a lot of people understand that. They do not understand how much work has to go into writing, preparing and remembering speeches.” Additionally, Grady brings up how Amanda Hicks is “one of the greatest Speech and Debate coaches” and all the members depend on one another like a family would, in the sense you are helping each other to be the best speech and debater than can be once their foot hits the stage to give a speech or debate on the topic of interest. Grady mentions how you know your speech and everyone else’s speech.
Keep talkin’ Broncos, let your voice be heard beyond the blue!