January 27, 2006

Speaking from the heart

Ten Evergreen students receive top honors at
ESD speech contest awards ceremony

By Michelle Hecht
Staff Writer

On Jan. 25, an awards reception at Chaboya Middle School honored 10 outstanding fourth through eighth-grade students as winners of the 25th Annual Bank of America/Evergreen School District Speech Contest held the week prior.

Winners of the 25th Annual Bank of America/Evergreen School District Speech Contest (Top Row): Chaddy Georges, 6th grade, Laurelwood Elementary School; Claire Karlsson, 6th grade, Matsumoto Elementary School; Rhed Shi, 7th grade, Quimby Oak Middle School; Rebecca Chien, 7th grade, Chaboya Middle School; Warda Ali, 8th grade, LeyVa Middle School; Arun Kastury, 8th grade, Chaboya Middle School. (Bottom Row): Kevin Hong, 5th grade, Cadwallader Elementary School; Brendan Lee, 5th grade, Millbrook Elementary School; Richa Wadekar, 4th grade, Matsumoto Elementary School; Jessica Palacios, 4th grade, O.B. Whaley Elementary School.  Photo by Michelle Hecht

Each winner received a plaque, certificate and $100 savings account from Bank of America.

“You would be amazed, you would be absolutely amazed,” said Leslye Lawler, eighth-grade honors teacher at Chaboya Middle School and co-coordinator of the contest. “These are very capable students, who love to work and shine and get involved.”

Students from the district’s 18 schools began by developing an essay in November. By that time, Lawler, along with District Librarian Robin Bailey and Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Susan Hanna had designated a topic.

This year, students reported on their favorite historical figure. They chose a wide range of individuals, including William Shakespeare, Susan B. Anthony, Audrey Hepburn and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The diversity of the people they selected, plus the passion with which they spoke about their favorite historical figures was amazing,” said Lawler, who required her students to participate, though it was voluntary for some schools.

Matsumoto fourth-grader, Richa Wadekar, said her teacher gave them the option. The contest winner, who said she was nervous, but wants to do it again, picked George Washington Carver. “I wanted somebody that cared about the environment, because that’s what I care about,” Wadekar said.

Three-time winner Claire Karlsson, a sixth-grader from Matsumoto, also looked for someone who shared her values. Flipping through an activist book, she decided on Sojourner Truth.

“I wanted a woman right away,” she said. “I’m really into women’s rights.”

Once the students wrote the essay – 300 words for fourth, fifth and sixth-graders, 500 words for seventh and eighth – they developed a speech.

As Lawler’s class prepared their speeches, she said she was fortunate to have former students, who are now in the Speech and Debate Club at Evergreen High School, offering their help.

“They got community service [hours], but also had the opportunity to connect with the kids,” said Lawler.

The high school students practiced with them and provided techniques for being more confident. According to Lawler, her class enjoyed the support and said it helped.

One of this year’s winners, LeyVa Middle School eighth-grader Warda Ali, geared up for the contest by practicing daily.

“My drama teacher assigned us [Ali and other participants] rooms and different teachers to practice in front of everyday at lunch for about a month,” said Ali, whose favorite historical figure was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a founding father of Pakistan.

At the district competition, two judges from both the Evergreen School District and Bank of America were assigned a grade level. Every school sent one fourth, fifth and sixth-grade finalist and four from both seventh and eighth-grade. During the contest, judges looked for mastery of content, vocabulary, delivery and poise.

“It’s very difficult to pick,” said Lawler. “The judges were so impressed.”

Ali, who said she was a bundle of nerves, agreed.

“It was a very tough competition; it was anybody’s game,” she said. “All the contestants did an awesome job.”

As a judge for the seventh-graders, Bank of America Mortgage Account Executive, Robert Concepcion, echoed this sentiment.

“They were all very candid, they were all very well-spoken and they were all very into the historical figure that they picked,” he said.

Concepcion added that it was hard to choose, because each student was adept at speaking to the crowd.

Ten winners were finally chosen – two from each grade level. At the awards ceremony, they recited their speeches from memory once more to a packed house of family, friends, teachers, Bank of America representatives and school district officials. The crowd listened intently as this group of highly-articulate students spoke of the people they admired.

When Quimby Oak seventh-grader Rhed Shi spoke about his favorite historical figure, Albert Einstein, he managed to work the audience for a few laughs. Quoting Einstein with an old, gruff voice, Shi said, “It’s not that I’m smart, it’s that I stare at problems longer.”

Millbrook fifth-grader Brendan Lee also got the crowd going with an intense passion for his hero Bill Gates. Afterwards, Bailey said that with Lee’s enthusiasm, he might just be the next Gates.