Very recently, our school participated in the district wide speech competition, and Rio Norte placed 1st . The speech champion was Shriya Hariharan, a 8th grader and president of the Debate Club. Shriya entered the competition because she enjoys public speaking and hopes that it will benefit her when she can achieve her goal of running for high school class president. Since she is also the debate club president, and former winner of the ToastMasters speaking competition at her grade school, she was destined to win. The ToastMasters speaking competition was structured in a way very similar to the current speaking competition, without the prizes. 

The competition took place at Rancho Pico Middle School in the MPR, which according to Shriya is very similar in structure to our own. The contestants had to write a speech answering the question: “If you could, what event in American history would you travel back in time to witness, and why is it significant to you?” Shriya answered this by talking about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a major event in the expansion of the United States territory. According to her peers, her speech was very presidential and professional, awarding her with the victory.

In reward for this great achievement, she was also given a 300 dollar cash prize, and something entirely priceless: a breakfast with several politicians, lawmakers, and attorneys at the Hyatt hotel, a very expensive and fancy local hotel. Furthermore, she gets the opportunity to present her speech to those people. She is very excited. Shriya stated that she does not wish to enter any other speech competition in the future, and just to focus on her goal of becoming a class president. On behalf of Rio Norte, congratulations Shriya!