Oakwood senior earns first place honors

Published in the Feb. 19 – March 4, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Staff Report

Photo by Marty Cheek From left to right, the contestants are Pauline Hugnh, Roxanne Ohayon, Divya Gopisetty, Nina Singh and Jaime McCain.

Photo by Marty Cheek
From left to right, the contestants are Pauline Hugnh, Roxanne Ohayon, Divya Gopisetty, Nina Singh and Jaime McCain.

The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill’s annual speech contest showcased the public speaking skills of five local high school students at the club’s Feb. 12 meeting. Oakwood High School senior Divya Gopisetty took first place with her impassioned speech “Every Woman, Every Right” advocating Rotarians promote women’s equality.

The other speaking contestants were Nina Singh from Oakwood School who came in second, Roxanne Ohayon and Jamie McCain, both from Oakwood, tied for third, and Pauline Hugnh from Sobrato High School received a certificate of merit. Gopisetty will compete in the Rotary district contest level.

“It was a wonderful event,” said Robin Nielsen, the contest organizer. “You can see how some of the students got up there and had never spoken in front of people before. It’s a really safe environment.”

Gopisetty enjoys public speaking so much that she formed a speech and debate team at Oakwood when she started as a freshman. On Jan. 15, she won $200 as the first-place winner in the Morgan Hill branch of the American Association of University Women’s inaugural Speech Trek contest.

She believes in young people developing their leadership skills at an early age, getting involved in the Rotary Club’s Interact program in her freshman year of high school.

“I took on a lot of officer positions,” she said. “I was project manager my sophomore year, vice president my junior year and now I’m currently co-president at Oakwood High School. Through Interact, we have Rotarians come and visit us and encourage us to do the speech contests.”

“It’s been a phenomenal experience,” Gopisetty said. “I’ve developed so much as a speaker.”

Rotary Club of Morgan Hill President Brad Ledwith was impressed with the caliber of the performances. “I’ve been in the club 14 years and it gets better and better every year,” he said. “To be able to talk to 125 adults in a speech setting is just fantastic. It just shows what our youth are able to do.”

He praised the first-time contestants for participating. “I encourage them to come back,” he said. “With no experience, to do as well as they did, I was impressed..”