Mayo student wins National Public Speaking Competition
St Joseph's Secondary School, Castlebar, student Fiza Farham won the National Final of Soroptimist International Ireland Public Speaking Competition.
A Mayo student has won the National Final of the Soroptimist Ireland Girls’ Public Speaking Competition, which was held last Saturday in The Oak Room of the Mansion House, Dublin.
The competition has been running for 43 years and is the result of North-South Soroptimist co-operation when Mildred O’Brien and Marie Brownlee decided that there should be a competition to encourage girls to speak in public.
The SCF Global Campus sponsored competition was this year hosted by Dublin Soroptimists. The event was co-ordinated by the Dublin Public Speaking Convenor by Margaret Murray. Eight regional finalists talked on a range of topics from the environment, friendship to the empowerment of women. During the competition each speaker was also given two minutes to prepare a two minute talk on the topic ‘Water’.
The winner, Fiza Farham from St Joseph’s Secondary School, Castlebar, impressed the panel of judges with both her talk on 'People and Human Rights' and her impromptu talk.
Soroptimist Ireland National President, Aisling Nolan and CEO of Women’s Aid, Sarah Benson congratulated all the finalists for their excellent talks. Ms Nolan described the girls as future leaders who will shape Irish society for the better.
