Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School Junior Finishes in Top 5 at Rotary's District Speech Contest

Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School Junior and Interact Vice President, Jasmeen Randhawa, represented the North Royalton-Broadview Heights Rotary and Interact Clubs in the District Finals of the annual Four-Way Test Speech Contest held at Aurora High School on Saturday, March 31, 2012.

Thirty contestants from the fifty-six Rotary Clubs comprising District 6630 competed in the speech contest. Rotary District 6630 includes in neighboring cities such as Strongsville and Parma, as well as more distant communities like Conneaut, Garrettsville-Hiram, and Lodi.

Contestants were divided into five groups of six with the winner of each group competing in the finals. Each room had 3 judges, two representing Rotary and one representing Toastmasters. Participants had five to seven minutes to speak. Each speech was to incorporate the Rotary’s Four-Way Speech Test into their topic. That test asks four questions based on the things we think, say or do everyday - Is it the TRUTH?; is it FAIR to all concerned?; will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?; and, will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?” Topics ranged across many subjects including high school issues, drug addiction, bullying, and the high school shootings in Columbine and Chardon.

Jasmeen’s speech addressed the impact media has on our lives using an example of how women in Fiji have physically changed since the introduction of television there. She also noted how we no longer recognize our surroundings as exemplified by the story of an experiment conducted by Joshua Bell, world renowned violinist. Although he regularly sells out concert halls, he managed to earn a measly $27 in tips while performing for forty-five minutes in a metro station in Washington, DC during rush hour. Jasmeen won her group and was a finalist along with Rotary Interact Members from Rocky River, Strongsville, Hudson, and Solon.

“The judges had an impossible task because every finalist was nothing short of superb,” said Thomas Craft, Co-Director of the North Royalton-Broadview Heights Interact Club.

When the judges tallied their votes, the contestant from Solon was awarded first place, the contestant from Strongsville and last year’s District winner, finished third, and our Jasmeen finished fourth. Don Keehn, Chairperson for the contest said, “While the judges had to rank the finalist to award appropriate cash prizes, there clearly were no losers among all 30 students participating. The big winners of the morning were those in attendance.”