Rotary District 7850 annually holds a speech contest. There are four rounds. Today, the Rotary Club of Lebanon held Round One of the contest. The Round One prize is $200. If the student who wins Round One goes all the way to Round Four, cumulatively the first place winner will receive a prize of $1,750 and the second place will will receive $1,500.
This year the topic of the speech contest is Why is Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Important?
Our contestants prepared and delivered a five-minute speech which related to this topic to their life, school, community and Rotary values.
The winner of Round One will receive a $200 prize which will be given to the student at Round Two.
Three Lebanon High School students participated in the contest,
Elizabeth Rose Canaveral, West Lebanon
Adriana Caraeni, Lebanon
Riley Naylor, Lebanon
Elizabeth Canaveral spoke about her personal journey as an Asian American. Over time she has noted that Lebanon High School has a more diverse student body, and the faculty is more diverse too. She is a member of the DEI Club which started out as a group "of color" , and now has grown to include anyone who is interested in helping to make Lebanon High School as more inclusive community for all. She spoke to the importance of having a school library that includes authors that represent many cultures. She remembers finding a book written by a Filipino author in the LHS library. Reading literature written by someone of her culture was very meaningful. She stated "it brought me comfort". She used an analogy of puzzle pieces, that it takes all shapes, sizes and colors to put a puzzle's picture together. If one is missing, the picture will never be complete.
Reily Naylor reflected on the writing of Kurt Vonnegut who wrote about "sameness" and he believed that trying to achieve sameness would lead to the destruction of the world. She believes that each person brings something special to the world. We should celebrate each person uniqueness. She related as story about a classmate who had the nickname "butterfly". She had a myriad of health issues that made her different, unique and fragile. She was a person who worked very hard to overcome her limitations, and worked to have other accept her for her uniqueness. Although fragile, she still could "fly". Through DEI we can see beauty, wonder and possibility. She concluded her talk with this quote from John Hume:
Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.
Adriana Caraeni was next. She talked about the challenges of learning during the social isolation of Covid. At times she could be overwhelmed by feelings of exclusion and being alone. Lack of connections to others caused her to feel unhappy. She discovered how important human contact with others was for her. Diversity of friendships is so important. To hear different points of view, to be challenged by others to consider other ways of thinking can help a person reframe trials and tribulations. She then reflected on Rotary International's DEI statement, "At Rotary, we understand that cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture is essential to realizing our vision of a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change." She encouraged us to take this message to heart.
Ed Friedman took a few minutes to interview our three candidates while our judges completed their work, and score sheets were tallied.
Phil Rentz, thanked our judges, timekeeper and score sheet tallier. Then announced the following:
The winner of Round One is Riley Naylor.
Second runner up was Adriana Caraeni.
Congratulations, Riley.