Public Speaking Competition
International Students rise to the challenge
Public speaking is undoubtedly one of the most valuable and essential soft skills we can possess. However, being able to confidently speak in front of a crowd is not easy, especially for international students. Perhaps understanding that, the public speaking contest was established by Northcote High School teachers to encourage international students to participate to develop their public speaking skills, challenge themselves, and build confidence.
On 19 November, the much-anticipated Public Speaking Competition captivated students and judges alike, with participants delivering powerful speeches on the topic "Team Effort." The judges were Mr Tucker, Ms Maidment and Alex Wright with Ms Balis as the organiser.
The competition took place very enthusiastically, the students took turns stepping on stage to present extremely diverse and thorough perspectives and opinions on the given topic with confidence and enthusiasm. The judges shared that they had to discuss for a long time to choose the winner because all the students gave very good speeches, however, after a tough deliberation, the winners were announced:
3rd Place: Nhat Ha Nguyen (Hannah) (11L)
2nd Place: Phuong Vy Le (Beatrix) (10M)
1st Place: Bijoy Gupta Shovan (11C)
With all of my efforts and confidence, I luckily achieved second place in the competition. However, I feel that rankings are not as important as the wonderful experience I have had. Not only did I listen and learn from other students, but I also received compliments and feedback to improve my public speaking skills from the judges. For me, the encouragement and support from everybody were invaluable.
Through this experience, I realised that speaking in front of people is not as scary as I once thought. And as long as we have enough confidence in ourselves, enough preparation and the will to improve more day by day, it will become really easy. Then gradually it turns into a familiar skill of ours. I really hope that this contest will spread and attract more international students because of the values and lessons it brings. I can't wait to know next year's theme and see even more students participating!
~Beatrix Le, Year 10
