Six Northeast Florida High School Seniors Win Rotary Oratory Regional Competition

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Feb. 1, 2017 - PRLog -- Six First Coast area high school seniors won the regional competition phase of the 2017 Rotary Oratory Competition conducted by the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville. They will advance to the final competition on February 16 at the University of North Florida where they will compete for a $5,000 first place college scholarship and a $2,500 second place scholarship.

The winners are as follows…

-       South Jacksonville Regional: Maria Ribeiro, University Christian School

-       Jacksonville Regional: Shruti Murali, Stanton College Preparatory

-       St. Augustine Regional: Natalie Costello, Ponte Vedra High School

-       Orange Park Regional: Guy Fisher III, Ridgeview High School

-       Fernandina Regional: Madison Moore, Yulee High School

-       Westside Regional: Gabe Wise, Douglas Anderson School of the Arts

In addition to advancing to the finals to compete for the first and second place scholarships, each regional winner received a $500 college scholarship.

Forty-five area First Coast high schools were originally invited and a total of 30 seniors competed in the six regionals. Regionals were held at the Rotary Club of Fernandina, the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, the Rotary Club of Orange Park, the Rotary Club of St. Augustine, the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville and the Rotary Club of West Jacksonville.

This year's speech topic asked students to argue which area of concern should Rotary place its resources. Those areas include Promoting Peace; Fighting Disease; Providing Clean Water; Saving Mothers and Children; and Growing Local Economies.

"We have set a record this year with 30 students participating in our competition," explained Diane Pauly, co-chair of the Rotary project. "As a result, we will have one of the strongest fields of competition for our scholarships."

The final competition will be a dinner event, emceed by WJXT's Mary Baer and 1010XL Radio personality Jack O'Brien, at the UNF Adam Herbert Conference Center on Thursday, February 16.

For more information on the Southside Rotary speech project, email Rotaryexecsec@aol.com.

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