Speech Trek Speech Contest, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015

College graduates today have accumulated more than one trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt!

For generations, adults have told young people that a college education is the key to a good job, to making more money, and to having a better life. For 133 years, AAUW has encouraged the importance of higher education through legislative advocacy, national fellowship grants, and local scholarship programs.

However, once-free public education has become enormously expensive as state legislatures fund other public interests. Tuition, housing, and materials costs continue to rise. Getting through in four years can be nearly impossible in some institutions of higher learning. As a result, students are graduating from college with thousands of dollars in loan debt. Unemployment and underemployment have presented stubborn obstacles to career building.

Next month, AAUW Sacramento Branch will hold our 8th Annual Speech Trek Contest, and we are asking Elk Grove Unified School District high school students to explain in a 5-6 minute speech: Is College worth the time and expense? Please join us and hear how students answer this timely question.

• Saturday, February 21, 2015
• Valley Hi-North Laguna Library
• 7400 Imagination Parkway, just off Bruceville Road across from Cosumnes River College
• 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

Our winners this year will take home prize money between $100-$400! All speeches will be video taped, and the winning speech will be entered in the AAUW State Speech Trek Contest with prize money between $500-$1,500. These young people provide an exciting and interesting program you don’t want to miss.