“Integrity and civility play what role in today’s society?” is this year’s prompt for the 81st Lions Club Student Speakers Scholarship contest. Slated to be held on Monday February 5 at 6 p.m. at the Masonic Lodge of San Luis Obispo, awards at the Club level range from $25 for each contestant completing minimum delivery time, to $100 for the winner. If one is to advance past the Club level and through the Zone, Region, District, and Area levels into the Final contest, there is the opportunity of winning $10,000 in scholarship money.
Students entering the contest are to prepare a spoken piece on the particular subject, attempting a length as close as possible to, but not over, ten minutes, nor less than five. The purpose of the contest is “to provide an opportunity for competitive public speaking among students, to stimulate self-expression and independent thinking, to present to the public the problems surrounding the maintenance of this commonwealth as a free nation, and to consider the means at our disposal of meeting the present and future world problems,” said Lion Stephanie Ewan.
When Expressions asked freshman Ethan Phillips, a new attendee of SLOHS from North Carolina who is interested in attending the contest, if he’s noticed any differences in the integrity and civility of people’s character between his previous place of residence and current, he said: “People everywhere are generally the same, but people here seem more chill and nice, while people in NC were just super careless, as in the sense that no one really cared what anyone did. People here are also seem a lot more outgoing, while in NC, because everything was country and far away from everything else, people were slightly introverted.”
If curious to participate, Ewan asks that all students interested contact her at 805-235-5133 or [email protected]. Dinner is to be provided for any students, parents of students, and teachers in attendance. For those considering their own participation, Principal Leslie O’Connor should have rule pamphlets readily available for handout.
