Photo: (L-R) Nicholas De Sena from Coronado High School, Mirshah Misirlioglu from the Academy of Our Lady of Peace, Toby Whittaker and Vivian Nguyen both from Hoover High School.
On Tuesday, March 18th, Old Mission Rotary hosted a sub-regional round of the District 5340's Four Way Test Speech Contest. All four participants were exceptional and did extremely well incorporating the Four Way Test into their presentations.
The winner was Toby Whittaker who is a senior at Hoover High School. He was dressed in thrift store clothing including a burgundy sports coat and opened up with a song from Funny Girl. Toby presented a creative and compelling argument for purchasing and wearing secondhand clothes.
Second place was Nicholas De Sena from Coronado High School. He methodically argued that the Inclusive Language Movement oversimplifies things and can lead to incorrect assumptions. Toby and Nicholas will be participating in the next round of the contest.
There were two other finalists:
Mirshah Misirlioglu is senior at the Academy of Our Lady of Peace and warned us of the dangers of false and malicious social media posting from teens that target other teens. She was the most natural and relaxed speaker.
Vivian Nguyen is a senior at Hoover High School and discussed the challenges of immigrant children growing up in American society. She remembered her embarrassment when her Vietnamese mother picked her up from elementary school on her blue bike while the other children were picked up by parents in nice cars! Her very proud mom attended the contest.