UQSUQTUUQ/GJOA HAVEN - Six students, keeping good eye contact with the audience delivering their speech and speaking with clarity, were the top winners of a public speaking contest held late last month at Quqshuun Ilihakvik.

Jordan Takkiruq, a Grade 5 student at Quqshuun Ilihakvik in Gjoa Haven, won first place in the boys category in a public speaking contest at the school. - photo courtesy of Rob Filipkowski

Vice-principal Bern O'Brien said the contest, open to Grades 4 to 6, attracted 27 students in the preliminary round on March 29. Of those, 13 made it to the finals.

"I think it's a great way to get children to develop confidence in themselves, to be able to speak out in public," she said. "I think it does wonders for them."

Students spoke for three to four minutes in the preliminary round about anything they wanted, said O'Brien.

"It can be on a personal level, it can be research, it can be something that happened in the past, it could be about the community," she said. "I let the children decide what they wanted to do and most of them decided to talk about a special experience in their life."

The 13 finalists wrote a speech, practised developing eye contact with the audience and speaking with clarity before presenting it to the about 50 people in attendance, she added. O'Brien said three students got emotional during the delivery.

"What really surprised me was how well the kids did their presentation. It was just wonderful," she said. "They had such good eye contact with the audience. They held the audience's attention. They spoke with great clarity and they had such good knowledge of their speeches."

Grade 5 student Jordan Takkiruq, the winner in the boys category for the second year in a row, spoke about Inuit namesakes both for the preliminary and final rounds. The nine-year-old said he thought it would be good to do a speech this year as he had done one the year before.

"Very surprised (I won) but though I won first place last year, I was kind of not very surprised I won this year. I believed in myself," he said.

He had fun, he added, but was a "little nervous" during the competition.

Fellow classmate Braidy Tungilik spoke about a special friend she met while in Edmonton, a speech that earned her top honours for the girls category. The 10-year-old said she was nervous during the competition and very surprised she won. She added she would participate again as she liked it.

The winners earned trophies and each participant received a ribbon and medallion.

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