National Oratorical Contest set for this weekend
The American Legion’s 2015 High School Oratorical Scholarship Program, "A Constitutional Speech Contest," is this weekend in Indianapolis at the Wyndham Indianapolis West hotel. Tune into www.legiontv.org Sunday at 10 a.m. EDT to watch the finals.
The contest will begin April 11 with 52 high school students from across the country competing in the quarterfinals. The top nine contestants from the quarterfinals will advance to the semifinals. During both sessions, the participants will present a rehearsed eight- to 10-minute oration on an aspect of the U.S. Constitution in front of judges, as well as a three- to five-minute speech on an assigned topic discourse — a phase of the Constitution selected from its Articles and Sections.
The top three semifinal winners will advance to the national championship finals on April 12 at 10 a.m. EDT for a chance to win first place and an $18,000 scholarship. Second place receives a $16,000 scholarship, and third place receives a $14,000 scholarship.
Each department (state) winner who is certified into and participates in the national contest’s first round receives a $1,500 scholarship. Those who advance past the first round receive an additional $1,500 scholarship. The American Legion’s National Organization awards the scholarships, which can be used at any college or university in the United States.
The following is a list of the 53 students competing in The American Legion's 78th annual National Oratorical Contest:
Alabama: Daniel Blessing of Opelika
Alaska: Cheyenne Mathews of Ketchikan
Arizona: Chetan Bafna of Somerton
Arkansas: Adrianne Bowings of Little Rock
California: Taryn Murphy of Temecula
Colorado: Charles Schmidt of Denver
Connecticut: Christina Mitchell of Deep River
Delaware: Cayla Carter of Smyma
District of Columbia: Jacob Shapiro
Florida: Geeta Minocha of Ocala
France: Austin Muraille
Georgia: Brandon Davis of Jefferson
Idaho: Luke Paul of Post Fallas
Illinois: Rowan Macwan of Naperville
Indiana: Collin Knolhoff of West Lafayette
Iowa: Emma Skahill of Earlham
Kansas: Zachery Galyon of Little River
Kentucky: Bradley Schwartz of Prospect
Louisiana: William Grace of Houma
Maine: Oona MacKinnon-Hoban of Portland
Maryland: Surjo Bandyopadhyay of Lusby
Massachusetts: James Letterie of Winthrop
Michigan: KendraRocha of Howell
Minnesota: Caroline Donaldson of Eden Prairie
Mississippi: Solomon Brown of Greenwood
Missouri: Meghana Bharadwaj of Wildwood
Montana: Gavin Sison of Butte
Nebraska: Allegra Hardin of David City
Nevada: Joko Cailles of Reno
New Hampshire: Virginia Drye of Plainfield
New Jersey: Cassidy Diamond of Ocean City
New Mexico: Simon Savarese of Albuquerque
New York: Jessica Norris of Almond
North Carolina: Samuel Chase of Clayton
North Dakota: Samanta Goerger of Wyndmere
Ohio: Abhiskek Bhatt of Parma
Oklahoma: Aubrey Sinder of Glencoe
Oregon: James Aldrich of Mulino
Pennsylvania: Mercy Harris of Pleasureville
Puerto Rico: Jeffrey Rodriguez of Guaynabo
Rhode Island: Collin Vis of Charlestown
South Carolina: Victoria Nwankudu of Florence
South Dakota: Esther Swift of Burke
Tennessee: William Vest of Cleveland
Texas: Kenwoo Kim of Lewisville
Utah: Lauren Edmonson of Ogden
Vermont: Alyse Beauchemin of Vergennes
Virginia: Jonathan Corbin of Keswick
Washington: Cady Crosby of Burlington
West Virginia: Sarah Bryan of Milton
Wisconsin: Saafia Masoom of Platteville
Wyoming: Zariah Tolman of Otto