The students on the right recently participated in the West Tacoma Optimist Club's annual event. Listeners heard about Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, football players, personal heroes and even the Revolutionary War as they learned about the official topic, "How the world gains from optimism." As always, it was inspiring.
Two of these students* will move forward to the Washington Zone 4 competition on April 22 where they will compete with other speakers from the Tri Cities and Vancouver Optimist Clubs for the opportunity to advance to the PNW District competition on May 5-6, 2017 in Burnaby, BC. The winning speaker in the District competition earns a $2,500 scholarship, second place $1,500 scholarship, and third place $1,000 scholarship.
From the District level, one student will advance to the Optimist International World Championships. Only the second year for the global competition, one student will compete for an addition $20,000 in scholarship prizes.
All awards are paid on request to the student's college by the Optimist International Foundation or the Canadian Children's Optimist Foundation.
Find out more about the Optimist International Oratorical World Championship scholarship contest at this link.
*To comply with Optimist International contest rules, the names of the students are not published to maintain anonymity as they progress through the event.