On Sunday, November 8, at McBride High School, Mikva Challenge hosted the Long Beach Project Soapbox public speaking competition. Poly students from Dan Adler’s AP Seminar class and students from the AP Capstone program attended. The students were selected through a competition in their classes.
“I think it went really well. It seemed to run smoothly and everyone I spoke to was very impressed with how great everyone’s speech was,” said senior Kaitlyn Frawley, a volunteer at the competition.
One standout speech was freshmam Nicholas Gillogly’s speech on water conservation.
“Basically, I talked about water wasters and some ways that we can save water. I also talked about my invention for saving water. [For my invention] I used a reservoir to hold shower water while it’s heating up, so that water that would usually go down the drain and be wasted could be used to water plants,” said Gillogly, who was selected as a semifinalist.
There were multiple rooms where students gave their speeches. After everyone had given their speeches, 8-12 semifinalists were chosen. These semifinalists then competed on the main stage in front of everyone.
Out of Adler’s students, junior Elizabeth Bigham won 2nd place for a speech on sexual harassment. Junior Amelia Haynes won 3rd for a piece on mental health. Poly semifinalists included freshmen Matthew Kempfer and Nicholas Gillogly, for speeches on mass transit and daught and water conservation, respecively. The winner of the Long Beach competition was Wilson junior A. J. Walker.
Walker will go on to compete at the state level later this year. The winner of the state level will then go on to compete at the national level. The prize has not yet been determined, but in 2013 the winner at the national level got to attend the inauguration of president Barack Obama.
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