The Sacramento Branch Speech Trek Project announces the results of our speech competition on Saturday, Feb. 20. We had four winners out of 11 Elk Grove Unified District high school student competitors in grades 9-12.
Speech Trek 2016 Winners
From left, Gabriel Aduna, 11th grader at Monterrey Trail High School, won the Honorable Mention $50 Award; Gabriela Martinez, 12 grader at Cosumnes Oaks High School, won the third place $100 award; Neomi Shivani Parikh, an 11th grader at Cosumnes Oaks High School, won the second place $200 award; and Kathy Le, a ninth grader from Pleasant Grove High School, won the first place $400 award.
These high schools students delivered their original 5-6 minute speeches to a packed audience in the Community Room of the Valley Hi-North Laguna Library. The speech topic this year is Gender Bias and Inequality. What is gender bias and inequality? What is its impact on people? Why should organizations such as AAUW continue to work to change its practice?
The volunteer judges for this year’s competition were:
- Virginia Kidd, PhD., Communications Professor Emeritus from CSUS and AAUW member,
- Nancy Swanson, J.D., retired legislative advocate and Oak Ridge High School teacher, and a new member of our branch,
- Mora Som, BS in Psychology from UC Dacis 2013 and owner/operator of Sacramento’s only Cambodian restaurant, A Taste of Angkor.
Students, Judges and Speech Trek Commitee
Speech Trek thanks these wonderful judges and our member Kathy Papst, Timekeeper, for their time and effort. Additionally, Speech Trek thanks Linda Patterson, Program Director and one-woman hospitality committee for the delicious refreshments; Gloria Yost for providing Barbara Smith and Hedda Smithson as greeters; and Branch President Nancy McCabe for the helpful signage. Speech Trek Committee members Shari Beck, Ann Arneill, Mary Ann Flemming and Liz Jordan also thank new member Andrea Klinenberg for her technical help in filming the speeches.
The next step in the contest is providing a video of our winner to the State Semi-Finals, which will select the top five speeches from branch competitions held around California. The 4th and 5th place winners are named and awarded $250 and $150 respectively. The top three speakers will compete at the State Convention on Saturday, April 16, at the San Mateo Marriott San Francisco Hotel.
For questions or comments, please contact Liz Jordan, 916-354-9608, lizjord@msn.com; Shari Beck, 916-451-5143, gsbeck@surewest.net; Ann Arneill, 916-942-9227, ann@arneill-py.sacramento.ca.us; or Mary Ann Fleming, 688-3417.