Date: January 18, 2005
Contact: Irene Cromer
703-791-8720

COUNTY STUDENTS TAKE TOP HONORS IN ORATORICAL CONTEST

Six Prince William County middle and high school students earned top honors and were winners in the fifteenth annual Martin Luther King Youth Oratorical Contest that was held on January 17. Potomac High School senior Carl Brown wowed both the audience and judges with his oratorical rendition to win “Best Before the Judges” and “Best Before the Audience” at the high school level. In the middle school category, Godwin Middle School eighth-grader Abbesi Akhamie won “Best Before the Judges” and Marguerite Copeland, a seventh grader at Pennington School, captivated the audience of nearly 3,000 people winning “Best Before the Audience.” Finalists include Bull Run Middle School seventh grader Sydney Welch, Darian Butcher, a senior at Osbourn Park High School, and Desiree Smith, a junior at Stonewall Jackson High School. Last year Desiree won “Best Before the Audience” at the high school level.

This year’s theme was “Martin and Malcolm…Two Roads to Freedom.” 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.

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