Worcester Academy Students Win English-LATIN Public Speaking Competition in Boston Finals 2006

BOSTON, April 2.  The Public Speaking initiative launched by Speaking American and featuring bilingual Talks for grades 6, 7 and 8 statewide held the Finals of its first year of competition at the Boston Public Library on April 2, 2006.

Ms. Heidi Wolf, Founder of Speaking American, said, "Latin is alive and well in the Middle Schools in Massachusetts and we are delighted to encourage this scholarship and contribute to its enrichment by providing a platform for speaking as the ancient Romans did."

Judges of the English-LATIN Talks were Derek Haddad (BU '06) and Colin Pang (BU '07), both with majors in Ancient Greek and Latin at Boston University.

When asked if the Judges wanted to say something to the audience before the contest started, Derek Haddad, stood up and spoke in Latin explaining the relevance of Latin to the foundation of the romance languages and why it makes sense to know the basics of Latin today. He concluded with wishing the contestants "bona fortuna" (Good Luck).

Ms. Wolf acknowledged the joint effort made by Teachers and Parents in order accomplish the objectives of Speaking American to encourage Public Speaking as an early educational experience. Prizes in this category are by random selection and this year were donated by Panera Bread & Bakery-Cafe as part of their "Operation Dough-Nation" to benefit non-profit organizations and causes. Winners of Panera vouchers were Latin Teachers Krista Geenty and Emily Vezina, both teachers at Worcester Academy. The parents of Connor Lee, one of the English-Latin presenters, won the Parents' prize.

What's Next in Bilingual Public Speaking?

Ms. Wolf has a "Work in Progress" proposal to develop the Speaking American Web site to have language pages with text and audio so users can read and listen to the various languages used in the bilingual Speaking English PLUS initiative. In addition, the schedule for the bilingual Talks competition is as follows:

• 2007 - English and SPANISH
• 2008 - English and CHINESE
• 2009 - English and FRENCH
• 2010 - English and LATIN

Regarding photographic coverage or our 2006 Public Speaking events, the 1-Minute Talks and the Bilingual Talks of English and LATIN, we want to thank Alina Grosman (BU '07) for capturing those special moments we experienced.