A non-profit organisation, Recover, will soon be selecting Guyana’s top youth environmental speaker, who will be chosen to represent the country at any regional and international environment-related competitions in the future. The lucky individual will be chosen during the finals of “Shout” an environmental speech competition which was launched by Recover.
President of Recover, Dave Lalltoo
The competition is a three-phase one that began with the call for submissions by secondary school students across the length and breadth of Guyana, of an essay on what sustainable changes they would make to their environment if money was not an issue.
Speaking with this publication on Monday, the President of Recover, Dave Lalltoo, noted that a prize will be given to the winning school which will go toward executing the project which was stated in the initial essay submitted by participants.
He highlighted that the winning student will be the pilot person to execute the project that was initially proposed. The prize will total some $500,000 and of that, a sum of $250,000 will be the cash prize awarded to the school and the remaining will be in the form of technical assistance or any other support needed by the school throughout the execution of the project.
Throughout the competition, there was no restriction on whether private or public schools could make an entry. By the end of the closing date on April 30, submissions were received from secondary schools across Guyana. It was then that judging of the essays was done to determine the top thirty entrants that would be moving forward to the next phase of the competition.
After the selection was done, the thirty qualifying participants were afforded the opportunity to virtually meet with the members of the judging panel and other team members to receive coaching on the competition guidelines, public speaking, and youth empowerment and its roles in environmental preservation.
This was in preparation for phases two and three of the competition; both of which will be held on June 5, World Environment Day, at the Georgetown Princess Ramada Roraima Suite at 09:00h. For phase two of “Shout”, each of the thirty candidates were given approved environment-based topics to prepare a speech which they will present to a panel of ten judges on the day of the competition.
The speech is expected to last between two to two and a half minutes and must be on the topic provided only. Once completed, the judges will deliberate and the top ten speakers will be identified to move on to phase three, which will happen later that day.
This phase entails an impromptu speech competition between the ten finalists. The topics/questions will be asked by each one of the ten judges. Once all speeches have concluded, scoring will be done by the judges and audited by professional auditors and the top speaker will be announced.
Prizes will not just be awarded to the winning candidate, but the second and third-place winners can also expect a cut of the prize package. The top ten will also receive prizes and special prizes will be given to the most environmentally impactful speech, best essay, and best speech (of the prepared speech segment). Additionally, the school represented by the winning student will be given prizes as well valued at over $500,000. In total, the prize package for “Shout” is valued at over $2 million.
The participating schools who have made it to the semi-finals are, the Academy of Intellectual Minds, Anna Regina Multilateral School, Bartica Government School, Black Bush Secondary School, Bladen Hall Multilateral School, Camille’s Academy (Crane), Camille’s Academy (Soesdyke), Diamond Secondary School, Dolphin Secondary School, Essequibo Islands Secondary School, Friendship Secondary School, Hope Secondary School, ISA Islamic School, Chandisingh Secondary School, Kato Secondary School, La Bonne Intention Secondary School, Leonora Secondary School, Marian Academy, Parika Salem Secondary School, Plaisance Secondary School, President’s College, Qayyim Academy, Queen’s College, Skeldon Line Path Secondary School, Saint Joseph High School, The New Guyana School, Vreed-en-Hoop Secondary School, West Demerara Secondary School, Winifred Gaskin Memorial Secondary and Zeeburg Secondary School.
