Date:   January 20, 2004 
Contact: Irene Cromer
703-791-8720 
 
 

Five Prince William County middle and high school students won top honors and were winners in the fourteenth annual Martin Luther King Youth Oratorical Contest that was held on January 19, 2004. 
Anita Kisiedu, a freshman at Hylton High School, won “Best Before the Judges,” and Desiree Smith, a sophomore at Stonewall Jackson High School, won “Best Before the Audience” at the high school level.  In the middle school category two eighth grade National Honor Society students captivated the audience of more than 2,500 people.  Fred Lynn Middle School student Monique Simpson won “Best Before the Audience,” and Parkside Middle School student Katie Gonzalez won “Best Before the Judges.”  Derek Taylor, an eleventh grader at Forest Park High School, was also a finalist.

This year’s theme was “Those That Cannot Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It.”  The event was sponsored by the Prince William Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., in conjunction with the Prince William Chapter Delta Education Foundation and the Hylton Memorial Chapel.  The Prince William County Schools Education Foundation, Manassas City Schools Education Foundation, and the Manassas Park Schools Education Foundation provided U.S. savings bonds to the speakers.