Senior and debate team member Tajvir Singh recently competed at the Fairview Rotary Club’s Four-Way Speech competition where he won first place, and a $300 scholarship. Singh will now move on and compete at the district-level of the competition on May 15. 

“Tajvir is a very gifted speaker and has proven that time and time again,” debate coach Jake Cosio said. “I feel like some people would say like, ‘I was surprised,’ but I really wasn’t. Tajvir does good work and is good at what he does. [I am] proud of him. [I am] excited to see what he can do at the district level.”

The school has been participating in the rotary competition for five years.

“One thing I really enjoy about [the competition] is that you can choose your own topic,” Singh said. “You can write about anything you want. [The judges] don’t fix you on one thing. You can talk about what you like, and what you’re passionate about. I think that’s pretty cool.” 

Singh’s first-place speech focused on the concept of patriotism.

“[The win] was unexpected,” Singh said. “I didn’t think my speech was bad, but I heard everyone else’s, and I was like, ‘well this is pretty good too.’ I [thought it was] a very tough competition with great speeches across the board.”

The speech and debate departments continue to hone their skills in various competitions each year.

“We do rotary every year,” senior Mitch Laman said. “I’ve been friends with the people who have won last year, and the year before, but I’m impressed by him. I saw him working on it a lot beforehand. I’m proud of him for what he did.”

Singh was joined by Cosio and his fellow classmates Kendall Carll, Sebastian Ramirez, Shruti Subramanian and Ryan Wang. Singh took first, Subramanian took second and Carll took third.

“It definitely shows that the speech and debate department isn’t lacking in talent or skill,” Laman said. “They can go to competitions like rotary, give speeches and sweep the floor. I think it’s a good indicator of the sort of skill level that we have here.”