The Maranatha Speech Team competed recently in the Southern California Debate League Fall Varsity Speech Tournament at Arroyo High School and brought home the first place trophy. The team excelled in the Original Duo category with Trinity Moore and Elita Minas (shown here) winning first place and Natalie Azar, Michelle Tashjian, Samantha Gonzalez, Leannah Barreto, Mya Tio, Makayla Brainard, Yvette Cheng and Yvonne Feng also winning placement trophies in the O.D. Speech category. Freshmen India Lewis and Daniel Walsh earned trophies in Platform Speech and sophomore Benjamin Smith won a trophy for Interpretation.
The Speech Team is now preparing for the annual Rotary Four Way Speech contest to be held in late January, and the annual Pasadena Bar Association Speech Tournament to be held on April 23, 2016. These tournaments each present students with an opportunity to compete for a $5,000 scholarship cash prize. A Maranatha student has won the $5,000 PBA Speech grand prize three out of the past five years. Last year Maranatha had two students place in the top five of the PBA Tournament and then senior Joel Wunderly won the $1,000 third place prize. Any Maranatha student interested in trying out for these opportunities should contact Mr. Mesisca at [email protected] for further details.
Maranatha High School, 169 S. St. John Avenue, Pasadena, (626) 817-4000 or visit www.maranatha-hs.org.
