Wyoming Seminary Announces Winner of Annual Oratorical Contest

From left: Omeed Firouzi, contest winner; Dr. William Summerhill, Sem  contest organizer and public speaking teacher; and junior Paige Narins, contest runner-up. Not present for photo: senior Max Anthony, Kingston, contest runner-up.

Omeed Firouzi, a Wyoming Seminary freshman from Shavertown, won the school’s 2008 Oratorical Contest held recently on the Upper School campus.   His speech, presented to the entire student body, questioned the continued relevance and usefulness of the Electoral College as the mechanism for electing the president of a democratic United States, calling for its abolition in favor of a true popular election process.

Junior Paige Narins of Kingston and senior Maxwell Anthony of Kingston also competed in the contest. Narins presented a poignant look at the pressures exerted by many parents today, whose interest in helping their children seize every advantage in maximizing their potential for college and career have helped create a generation of children robbed of their childhood. Anthony argued that the Federal Reserve is both unconstitutional and disruptive to the normal economic forces necessary for a true capitalist economy to function as it should.

The three students were chosen as finalists from a field of six students who responded to the invitation to prepare 10-minute persuasive speeches under the direction of Dr. William Summerhill, Sem Chaplain and public speaking teacher.  A team of four faculty judges scored the students on their delivery, stage presence, logic in argumentation and strength of supportive evidence. 
Sem has held the Oratorical Contest for more than one hundred years. The annual competition tests students' abilities to research and argue an issue with reason and conviction.

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