Cactus Ranch Elementary School students had the opportunity to share a two-minute speech on someone who has impacted their life like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the campus’ MLK Oratory Competition Jan. 27.
A total of 14 students competed in the finals, which was championed by fifth-grade student Tanishka Gupta. Second-grade student Twisha Gupta and fifth-grade student Monica Zhang followed in second and third place, respectively. The competition consisted of two rounds starting with over 50 second through fifth-grade students.
“We had an astounding number of applicants,” said Lauren Derrington, Cactus Ranch third -grade teacher. “It wasn’t offered as extra credit, it’s just who wants to do it and we were impressed with how many kids joined.”
The competition was developed to further enhance initiatives brought through a $97,835 Tier II Innovative School Grant that was awarded to the school earlier in the year that focuses on four areas: social skills and collaboration, global communication, digital/social media literacy, public speaking and performing arts.
“The big idea is to get these kids communicating, whether it’s giving public speeches or presentations,” Derrington said. “This is just the small chunk of that to let them put their foot in the water, and will build from here.”
Not only did the students competing encourage each other, but the whole school cheered as they watched the whole event on an in-school livestream. Derrington’s third-grade class enjoyed cheering for the students competing and felt pride to be part of school community, she said.
“I love how we got to stream it live for the whole campus,” Derrington said. “My third-grade students were commenting and excited for the competitors. They didn’t even even know these kids, but they’re part of Cactus Ranch and my students could see themselves in part of the event.”
This was the first year Cactus Ranch hosted an oral competition and Cactus Ranch Principal Vicki Crain said she hopes to see even more students competing in the years to come.
“As our school begins to focus on the communications skills necessary to succeed in life, we are
excited to offer this extra-curricular competition,” Crain said. “It was a wonderful way to highlight the talents of our amazing students. After the positive reception we received from the participants, we are hoping to open the competition up to more school next year.”
