Oakland Rotary News

President-elect Dudley Thompson announced an upcoming member poll and reasons for it. Dudley recounted our own club’s past efforts on climate change and protecting the environment via expert speakers and one-off club projects. Now club leadership wishes to poll the membership in order to better focus our future on club service. Noting that Rotary International recently added a seventh pillar of strategic international impact, that of Protecting the Environment, it is a good time to poll. He asked everyone to complete the survey ASAP which will also help inform our direction on our next First Five Club Meeting on April 22, Earth Day, and any joint environmental projects we might also undertake.

peech Contest Committee Co-Chair Alex Kaffka began the speech contest by explaining the format consistent with Rotary content rules. He noted a number of club members were involved in making this contest happen and they would be introduced later in the program. Four student contestants from different area high Schools would each have up to five minutes to present their speech and interpretation of the 2021 Speech Contest Topic. Rotary Creates Opportunities. Then the judges, consisting of club members who were not contest committee members, would take two minutes after each speaker to evaluate the merits of the presentation. The winner will be announced at the end of all four speeches. Until then, contestant identities were kept anonymous by the assignment of Speaker A, B, C and D titles.

Leading off the presentations was Speaker A who presented a compelling case for the value of social media to make a positive impact throughout the world. By way of example, she shared her work to form a Teens for Healthcare Instagram group to expose youth to future healthcare careers via presentations from current professionals. She now has 3,000 Instagram followers throughout the world and a growing interest in the healthcare field. She explained that teamwork was vital to delivering good health care in the ER and the OR, and that teamworld is also learned through involvement with Rotary. 

Speaker B spoke eloquently about Rotary’s Four-Way Test and gave examples of how following each principle had impacted her own life working with others. The examples were vivid and positive and she also pointed out what negative things could happen if these points were not followed in our relationships with others.

Speaker C emphasizes the opportunity Rotary creates in designing leaders who are on the right side of morality and why this is important, citing examples of what happens when morality in his opinion is missing on the world stage. He also described ways that his engagement in Rotary as an Interact member for four years has developed his own leadership and engagement in service to his community, and to his fellow students including his becoming Class President. 

Speaker D focused on the importance of good communication, an opportunity that Rotary fosters in the world by overcoming language barriers where they exist and achieving great things collectively. She recounted her move to the US at age 10 and having to learn a new language in a new culture. She wishes to incorporate this experience into a career as a speech interpreter in healthcare and other venues so that fair and equitable treatment is given to all.

All of the presentations remained within the allotted five minutes, Ginni Ring the Contest Timer announced. She was aided in the proceedings by Jim Boessenecker serving as the Contest Teller. Later we learned about their professional qualifications to be involved with the contest, with Ginni coming from a 25-year career in youth and family advocacy, while now-retired Jim made plenty of speeches during his 25-year executive career at Chevron.

The Speech Contest added a new dimension for the first time. This year students were mentored by various Rotarians over 6 weeks of practice and training. Mentor Riza Hernandez shared the value of her experience and encouraged others to come forward.

With the judges’ important role, we learned about their qualifications. Garrett Riegg is a semi-retired former trial attorney and now a current substitute teacher. Kerry Hamill is the retired former Assistant General Manager of BART. Garrett Anderson is a pastor and also an attorney. Melvis Madunezim is a motivational speaker and an English Language Teacher. Stephanie Casenza is a public relations and fundraising professional for a well-known nonprofit.

Finally, a winner was chosen, and it was Speaker C now revealed to be Alvin Wang, a student at Mission San Jose High School. Committee Co-chair Barbara Beery announced that he will receive $100 and will advance to the next round in the Area Rotary Speech Contest. Also introduced and thanked for their participation were Mya Nguyen from Alameda High School as Speaker A; Grace Tan of Oakland Charter School as Speaker B and Peiwen Lin of American Indian Model School as Speaker D. A virtual and much-deserved round of applause was given to all!

Click here to watch the entire speech contest.

Co-chairs Alex and Barbara acknowledged and thanked all Speech Contest Committee members for their work including Debo Sarkar, Riza Hernandez, C J Hirschfield and Greg Annis.