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Berea Rotary President Dave Skrzynski congratulates the 4-Way Test Speech contestants, Jaylin Marotta, Elizabeth Chen and Christina Calvis.
Berea Rotary President Dave Skrzynski congratulates the 4-Way Test Speech contestants, Jaylin Marotta, Elizabeth Chen and Christina Calvis.
The final rankings were so close, Berea Rotary decided to send all three contestants to the District 6630 Four-Way Test Speech Contest on April 12.
The three Berea-Midpark High School students are Christina Calvis and Jaylin Marotta, both seniors; and Elizabeth Chen, junior. Elizabeth has represented Berea Rotary for the past two years.
Their speech topics were interesting and varied. Christina talked about embarrassment and how most people are very afraid of being embarrassed in public. They are obsessed with being “cool.” But this also could be a learning experience, Christina said.
Elizabeth spoke of another obsession – numbers. We are bombarded with IQ. BMI, movie ratings, SAT scores. Teacher salaries are based on student scores on state tests. Just because it’s easy to use, doesn’t mean we should.
Jaylin’s topic was politics. There is a reason your mother tells you to never discuss politics at the dinner table. Jaylin went on to discuss ways to talk calmly to someone with whom you disagree.
Celebrity judges this year were Berea Fire Chief Terry Ledwell and Berea Police Lt. Tom Walker.