The seventh annual College Connections student speech contest was held at JCC’s Jamestown Campus in April.
Finley Holt of Jamestown High School won first place. Bethany Schaaf of Westfield Academy & Central School placed second and Kara Triscari of Jamestown High School placed third.
Other contestants included Hunter Halterman of Cattaraugus-Little Valley Central School; Ethan Yannie and Nelson Rosario of Dunkirk High School; Ginna Hensel of Ellicottville Central School; Tesika Kilmer and Janie Swanson of Falconer Center School; Caleb Barber and Ian Conner of Frewsburg Central School; Caitlin Samargian and Samantha Kinnaird of Gowanda Central School; Makenzie Pagano and Kristen Wielgasz of Silver Creek Central School; and Ryan Jafarjian of Westfield Academy & Central School.
The competition is open to College Connections students at partner high schools who are enrolled in JCC’s Public Speaking course.
Students prepared a four- to five-minute speech on the topic, “How does the vision of America intersect with the reality of America?” They also gave a one-minute impromptu speech on a selected randomly topic.
Judges were Tory Irgang, executive director of the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation; Katie Castro, director of mission at Conduit Ministries and founder of Ministerio La Raza and Little Angels of Honduras; and Jordan Steves, director of strategic communications and community outreach at Chautauqua Institution.
Following the contest, students listened to a panel discussion on communications careers featuring Gary Hahn, director of marketing and communications at the National Comedy Center; Amber Grekalski, marketing specialist at Weber Knapp; and Bill Olson, adjunct media arts instructor at JCC.
College Connections, JCC's concurrent enrollment program with area high schools, is accredited by the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships.