The Grand Houston Youth
Speech Competition
January 20th 2024
Organized by S&S Youth Foundation and co-hosted by Washington Media, the competition featured a judging panel consisting of Deputy Mayor Tan Qiuching from Stanford, Principal Wang Rong from LongXingTianXia School, Founder and President Chen Heping from Topzeal Education, and public speaking teacher Biying Zheng from the Houston Chinese Immersion School. Dr. Li Juan, the Director of the Huaxia Chinese School Online School, attended the event as the award presenter.
During the competition, teenagers from different schools showcased outstanding speaking skills and profound insights through intense competition. After careful evaluation by the judges, 14-year-old Brandon Lin, a student at Stafford STEM Magnet Academy, emerged as the winner, demonstrating excellent eloquence and thoughtful reflections in his speech.
Our S&S Foundation co-founder Yige(Elaine) Wang expressed during the award ceremony, "We witnessed many outstanding teenagers whose speeches were passionate and wise, demonstrating a profound understanding of social issues. Brandon Lin stood out among the excellent participants, and we are very proud of his achievements."
Brandon Lin, in an interview, stated, "I feel honored to participate in this competition, and seeing the excellent performances of other students has been very enlightening for me. I will continue to work on improving my speaking skills and hope to share my ideas on more stages in the future."
The successful hosting of this competition not only provided a platform for teenagers in the Houston area to showcase their talents but also promoted the development of teenage speech education. The S&S Youth Foundation will continue to organize similar events, encouraging more teenagers to participate and contributing to the development and progress of the community.
Yige(Elaine) Wang
S&S Co-Founder
“I’m glad the speech competition went well, despite being scared of unknown outcomes and errors that could have happened. Throughout the event, I’m grateful for the help I received from friends and staff alike that made the event run as smoothly as it did. From the event, I learned many experiences. One such being that nothing will always go “according to plan”. Hence, it is a good idea to have backup plans and double check for mistakes. Another important lesson I learned was the importance of collaboration. If the other party refuses to acknowledge or correct the mistake, then you get nowhere. No matter how many times you emphasize a topic or a mistake, there will always be miscommunication. In conclusion, this event has helped me correlate the different scenarios and challenges that come with event planning."
