Rotary Oratory winner honored

Posted on February 5, 2020 by PluggedInto in Community, St. Johns, Youth and Education // 0 Comments

Kaylann Sims, student at Pedro Menendez High School, from left; Maegan Ocampo, student at Bartram Trail High School; Elizabeth Verdell, student at St. Augustine High School; Peggy Gachet, Rotary Club of St. Augustine’s President and Broker Associate with Watson Realty Corp.; Kayla Ehrlich, student at Nease High School, and Vikram Munlapudi, student at Creekside High School.

SAINT AUGUSTINE – Maegan Ocampo, a senior at Bartram Trail High School, won the St. Augustine Rotary Oratory Regional Competition. She will advance to the final competition on Feb. 20 at the WJCT-TV studios where she and five other regional winners will compete for a $5,000 first place college scholarship and a $3,000 second place scholarship.

Also competing in the St. Augustine Regional were Vikram Munlapudi, Creekside High School; Kayla Ehrlich, Nease High School; Elizabeth Verdell, St. Augustine High School, and Kaylann Sims, Pedro Menendez High School.

Ocampo and the other regional winners were awarded a $500 college scholarship and will advance to the finals where they will face a panel of judges composed of speech professors from all of the area colleges. Forty-five area First Coast high schools were originally invited and a total of 25 seniors competed in the six regionals.

This year’s speech topic asked students to select a person from past history who would be ideal to help improve life today. The final competition will be a dinner event, emceed by WJXT’s Mary Baer and 1010XL radio personality Jack O’Brien at WJCT-TV, and will be recorded for a later airing. For more information on the Rotary speech project, contact Peggy Gachet, Rotary Club of St. Augustine’s President and Broker Associate with Watson Realty Corp. at 904.377.0832 or email peggygachet@gmail.com.