On 8th November, two Year 10 students, Millie Foster and Simran Vyas, attended the Rotary Public Speaking Competition. Below Simran shares a little about the special event.

On 8th November Millie foster and myself participated in a public speaking competition held in the Mindarie recreation centre. This competition was created by the Rotary 4-way test organisation to:

  • Encourage and foster excellence in the art of public speaking
  • Develop the confidence and self-esteem of Year 10 students.
  • Provide an opportunity for students to test their skills before an audience.
  • Develop relationships between Rotary & schools e. To promote the ideals of Rotary.
  • Provide a further opportunity to consider positive life values
  • Open the door of opportunity for future leaders.

There were 4 incredibly confident and strong speaking students participating in the competition that day, Millie and myself represented Peter Moyes and 2 students named Michele and Jemma represented Butler College. We were allowed to individually choose the topic of our speeches, although, within our speeches, all students had to refer to the Rotary 4-Way test questions:

  • Is it the TRUTH?
  • Is it FAIR TO ALL CONCERNED?
  • Does it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
  • Is it BENEFICIAL TO ALL CONCERNED?

On the day, Millie spoke about the GAP effecting the education of woman within Australia, and I spoke about the importance of the animal species and the dangers human activity has on our natural world. At the end of the night Brian Butterworth (Vocational Service Director) announced the winner of the 1st club heat. This winner was myself. I was incredibly proud of myself and the people around me like my friends, teachers, Mr Brian and my mum. I would like to thank my House leader, Mrs Swain, for nominating me for this competition. Without her, I would not have achieved this amazing milestone in my future career as I predict that I will be speaking at many talks similar to this in order to raise awareness of environmental issues. Also, through this competition, I received the opportunity to change the minds of 25 people and start my quest to raise awareness of the animal issues facing our earth currently.

I am incredibly thankful for this opportunity given by the Rotary 4-Way Test Organisation as it has allowed me to gain confidence and experience talking to an audience I have never met before and the opportunity to meet incredible adjudicators who have given me confidence to take the Mindarie Rotary organisation and Peter Moyes to the finals. I will continue to work incredibly hard to further develop my speech for the districts in February 2018.

Written by Simran Vyas (Year 10)