Angel Travels to St. Louis MO for Oratorical Competition

Asha Mior ‘20 recently had the opportunity to compete at the regional level of the Optimist Oratorical Competition in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Optimist Oratorical Contest is a public speaking competition for youth under the age of 18, hosted by Optimist International. This is Optimist International’s second-most popular program, with nearly 2000 clubs competing each year. This year, the topic of the contest was “Where Are My Roots of Optimism?”.
 
In her speech, Asha used the metaphor of a tree to tell the stories of her grandfather, Joginder Johal, and his long-time friend, Maganbhai “Masterji” Patel.
 
Back in March, Asha competed against students from LFA and Crofton House at the Club level of the competition, held at LFA. She won first place in this level of the competition, advancing to the Zone level held at the Musqueam Cultural Centre in Vancouver in late April. There, she placed second, qualifying for the District level in Vancouver, Washington. At the Districts in May, Asha competed against the top two speakers in each of the zones, placing first overall and winning a $2500 scholarship. She was invited to compete at the Regional level in St. Louis, Missouri, against the other winners in the West Coast region.
 
Although Asha didn’t win the Regionals, she was very grateful for this opportunity and greatly enjoyed participating in the Oratorical contest. Performing her speech gave her the chance to share her grandfather’s story, a chance that, in her opinion, was far more important than any award. Her speech also gave her the opportunity to connect with the late Masterji Patel’s daughter, Tarla.
 
Asha has been competing in LFA’s public speaking club since Grade 9, having been awarded Top Junior Speaker in B.C. in her first year. Since then, she was named one of the finalists in the Speaker’s Speech Writing Competition hosted by the Library of Parliament last summer, and made Interpretive Reading finals at Senior Nationals in Winnipeg last February. Next year, she will be competing at the Internationals in Toronto in October.
 
Asha would like to thank Ms. Duffy for her ongoing support, as well as Mrs. Bedard and Ms. Tran. She would also like to thank her family for their unwavering encouragement of all of her endeavours. Finally, she would like to thank her fellow members of LFA’s public speaking team for their motivation and positivity along the way.
 
Thanks also to Optimist International, and particularly to the Optimist Club of Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest Optimist District for their support through all levels of the competition.

 To hear Asha's speech click on the following link:    WhatsApp Video 2018-07-03 at 5.23.26 PM.mp4
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