18 - Farewell to 2nd Term (Part III): Ignite Speech Competition

During the same day, December 22, 2015, the ERC faculty also held the Inter-Class Public Speaking Competition. The speakers delivered their speeches after every performance of the speech choir.

This competition is done in every term, but it was the first time it was held during the speech choir competition at the same time. The each participant of this event represents their block. The student that will be chosen by their professor after they delivered all their ignite speeches in their room will compete in the competition. Accordingly, our professor in EPUBSP1, Sir Nomer, picked Nicole Timbol to represent our block. Her speech was about unconditional love of a mother, so basically, she discussed about all the sacrifices and the hard works of a mother for their children.

During the competition, the first speaker was Jeleen Llarenas from MA151. Her speech was about her life as a soldier’s daughter. I like her speech because I can see myself to her, from being a son of a soldier, I understand that being in her situation is not that easy. I remembered the time when all I have is my mom during the whole recognition day since my dad didn’t able to attend the event because of this duties. At those times, all I think is that my dad would be so proud of me, which is why I’d rather understand our situation than to feel bad about it.

The second speaker was Charella Gonzales from TM151. Her speech was about how Disney animated shows and films mold her life.

The next speaker was Nicole Timbol from our block, AC151. Like I’ve mention earlier, her speech was about the unconditional love a mother can give through their children. Before the actual competition and during her practices for this event, I sensed that she will be able to captive the audience’s heart if she will continue having this particular characteristic that she had. Fortunately, during her actual speech, I can tell that the way she delivered it was touching and moving since her topic is personal to most of us.

The fourth speaker was Loise Lane Antonio from AC152 and her topic was about understanding women’s behavior.

The last but not least, the fifth speaker was Benjamin Bajet from BM151. His speech was about different types of students in a classroom. Most of people in the auditorium, especially his blockmates, were screaming throughout his speech since his slides contains pictures of his them. His transitions were good, and he explained thoroughly the different types of students that a lot of us can relate to.

After all of the speakers delivered their speeches, the judges announced the winners for the contest. The 2^nd runner-up was Nicole Timbol, 1^st runner-up was Jeleen Llarenas and the champion was Benjamin Bajet. I’m happy for all of them, and I know that after all they have been through, their efforts were paid off the moment they were given this recognition.

17 - Farewell to 2nd Term (Part II): Speech Choir Competition

December 22, 2015 – Tuesday

This day was the second day of the culminating event for this year’s 2^nd term of all English subjects. Speech Choir Competition and Ignite Speech Competition took place this day, but for now, I will be focusing on Speech Choir Competition.

For this term, the competition was plotted with this season, which is Christmas, and the piece was entitled “At Christmas” by Edgar Albert Guest. To be honest, before the actual competition, I wasn’t really confident about our performance since we didn’t practiced much, and we allotted one week only for the whole practice of the routine and buying of the costumes and props.

As a part of each performance, we were also tasked to make AVP as an introduction, and I was assigned to that. At first, I didn’t really know how we are going to make this AVP special, since we do not want it to be just typical and usual. For me, I want the AVP to be just natural as much as possible, showing what we’ve been through throughout this whole project given to us. As we practiced for our performance, we took videos of us and compiled it. I took place to make the video on the last day of our practice, which is December 19, Saturday and I finished it in six hours (which consist of having my dinner, taking a bath and watching TV haha!). I watched all the videos, and I am glad that we’ve got enough videos to sum up everything during this activity.

For the actual competition, my block was first to perform, then followed by the remaining four blocks. After all of the performances, I just wished that we must be in the top three at least. Fortunately, we landed 2^nd Runner-up. Not bad at all, since we knew that the judging is really tough and other groups performed better than us. In line with this, my block will have a grade of 90% for the Speech Choir.

16 - Farewell to 2nd Term (Part I): Public Speaking Competition

December 21, 2015 – Monday

This day was the start of the culminating event for this year’s 2^nd term of all English subjects. While going to school, I already felt the excitement to witness all the contestants to showcase their speeches, and I’m hoping that most of the winners will come from our block.

The theme of the event was "The cult of celebrities and fantasies... a Filipino obsession?” Few days before the actual contest, our professor in EPUBSP2, Ms. Nina let my blockmates who will be participating in the contest present their speeches instead of having their persuasive speech. From the moment they had their practice for the contest in the room, I already knew that my blockmates had their edge from winning in this competition.

The day started as we all gathered in the auditorium. Six of my blockmates (Yana, Gracielle, Bianca, Ado, Carolyn, Angela) were assigned to three different rooms wherein each room will hold ten participants and only three will advance to the final round. While we are waiting, we played some games to break the iced. The first game was speed speech. In this game, players were given random words every fifteen seconds and with that they must create a speech and switch through each words smoothly. Contestants from that game were really funny and entertaining, which is why the room’s dull atmosphere were lessened while we were waiting for the contestants to come back. Another game is like an ignite speech but this was done by a pair. There is a topic given to the contestants and they were showed some of pictures that were not really connected with their topic, yet, they needed to manage to efficiently link it in their speech. The last game was participated by the whole block. Each block was tasked to sing a Christmas song and each song should only be sung once and should not be repeated by the others, or else, your block will be eliminated. Unfortunately, we didn’t win in that game.

After all the games, the host announced the nine finalists that will compete for the final round. Gracielle, Bianca and Ado were three of those nine. The speakers presented their speeches which of them linked the topic based in their life experiences: their insecurities and family orientation, while the others linked upon their point of views.

The next day, Gracielle Sitjar was declared as the champion of the said competition. Her speech was really powerful and heart-rending, and I commend her for that. I admire her bravery towards sharing her own experiences since not everyone can look back about the pain of the past has brought.