High School Students Invited to Compete in Rotary Speech Contest

The Rotary Club of Dublin, Rotary Club of Pleasanton North and Tri-Valley Rotary are inviting local high school students to test their oration skills at the first, Covid-safe, virtual club-level version of the Richard D. King Annual Youth Speech Contest.

The competition, which recognizes the value of public speaking skills for emerging youth leaders, will provide ninth-to-twelve grade students an opportunity to write an original five-minute speech, based on the theme of “Rotary Opens Opportunities.” Contestants will then record videos of their lectures for judging before their recordings are presented and contest results are announced at Zoom meetings during the week of Feb. 21.

The youth speech contest is organized to increase personal knowledge and awareness of the importance of effective public speaking; to increase public knowledge of what Rotary is and does throughout the world; and to provide its contestants an opportunity to win cash prizes.

Contestants will be randomly assigned to one of three club-level contests conducted simultaneously by the local Rotary chapters. The winners of each contest will be awarded a $150 cash prize. They will qualify for area competition with its $200 top prize in March, with the possibility of moving on to the regional contest and its $250 top prize later in the month. Regional contest winners will compete for a top prize of $1000 at the Rotary District 5170 finals in April.

Second and third place winners at the three club-level contests will be awarded $100 and $50, respectively.

The application deadline is Feb. 7. Applications are available at https://tinyurl.com/2021RotarySpeechContest. Contest rules can be downloaded at https://tinyurl.com/2021RotarySpeechContest-Rules.