BPW Public Speaking Competition ends in tie

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

~~Adz:Right~~ BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Lady Arrindell Shield has been in a toss-up for the 9th Annual Business and Professional Women (BPW) Public Speaking Competition held on Tuesday, October 14, as the event ended in a tie for the first time in its nine-year history.

Taking the Shield from last year’s victor St. Theresa’s Convent, Alana Tipley and Donalene Roberts of St. Christopher Preparatory School and Basseterre High School respectively outdid the other fourth-formers with riveting presentations which posed some difficulties for the judges decide on a single winner. Both students walked away with first place prizes of a personal desktop computer and Seven Seas gift baskets donated by RAM’s Group of Companies.

The competition, held at the Basseterre High School Auditorium, drew scores of students and teachers in support of their respective representatives as they presented on the topic “What would you say is the greatest achievement since independence, and what would you say is the ... weakness?”

Past President of BPW Vaple Burt explained that the objective of the competition is primarily to promote the art of effective speaking and to assist in developing language skills in secondary schools. She noted that the event has seen a very high standard of public speaking over the years and added that it serves to encourage students to enhance their expressions and to gain self-confidence.

“This, the 9th Annual Public Speaking Competition, has been a successful one. The students delivered themselves quite well; the presentation of prepared speeches was very good and even the impromptu presentations were outstanding. What was even more so exceptional about this year’s event was that the quality seen was much better than previous years.

 “The prepared speeches were clear and well-written. Most of the students highlighted a number of achievements of the country but concentrated on one as the major one, and it was quite the same for the weakness. The students were given six topics beforehand on which the impromptu segment would have been based, but each student only presented on one topic after having picked. And, I think they did very well in that regard.”

Anna-Maria Steele of Cayon High School was voted Second Runner-up while Danielle Warner of Sandy Point High School won the Impromptu Segment.