Jenny Lee
Staff Writer

Ten contestants performed speeches reflecting their interests, views on life or an event that has affected them personally at the 109th Annual Reeves Speaking Contest hosted on March 28 by Jeffrey “Harry” Holcombe, who will be retiring at the end of the school year. Matthew Michaels ’13, Jocelyn Ng ’14 and Jiacheng (Bill) Wu ’14—a visiting EFZ student from Shanghai—received first, second and third place, respectively.

“My speech was inspired by very personal events in my life…what I said meant a lot to me,” said Michaels, who performed a monologue about his experience at Peddie entitled “The Comeback Kid.”

Similar to Michaels, Elias Gerasoulis ’14 also spoke about Peddie, but focused on how the school can provide its students with better opportunities.

“My speech was inspired, no doubt, by my love of the school,” Gerasoulis said. “I want Peddie to be the best it can be, which is why I wanted to start a conversation about reforms that I feel would have a positive impact on the school.”

“I didn’t feel too nervous on stage,” Gerasoulis said. “In fact, I felt much more nervous before I went on stage. Once I saw the people in the audience, I started to feel the passion of my message, and as a result, I tried to deliver my speech as strongly and clearly as I could.”

Kavita Oza ’14, winner of last month’s New Jersey Poetry Out Loud competition, did not place, but impressed audience members.

“Along with her impeccable speaking skills, Kavita was able to fuse comedy into a sorrowful personal anecdote—truly capturing the audience’s attention—while illustrating a fact about life that is often forgotten or denied,” Colton Karch ’14 said.

Another crowd favorite was Xiating Chen ’13, who gave her first-ever public-speaking appearance.

“I really liked the idea behind Xiating’s speech and how you should reach out to others and make new friendships without being surprised about what you discover about them,” Maakeda Sinclair ’13 said.

Runner-up Ng chose an unconventional approach to her speech, reciting a set of poems.

“I started writing a lot in my notebook,” Ng said. “The set of poems I performed were just the same as any of the other things I wrote. The only difference was that I performed them.”

The speeches were judged by Debbie Goodkin, AP English and drama instructor at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, and Roger Durling ’82, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

While the winners of this year’s competition have been chosen, Holcombe’s successor as long-time host of the contest is yet to be named. Stay tuned for the 110th Annual Reeves Speaking Contest to find out who will carry on his legacy.

Photos by Daniel Chang.