Twelve-year-old Ahkeel Marks has won the first VOICE’s Elsie Marks Memorial Storytelling Competition which was held on Saturday, 11th August 2018 at the Queenstown Primary School in Region Two.
A release from VOICE said that Marks who shone among the other competitors had the judges captivated from the beginning of his story with his confidence and sense of humour. The release said that the other students who participated in the competition were Dekeera Harinandan, Aatifah Hubbard, Chimalsi Vaughn, Emani Duncan and Rumelia Martinborough. Hubbard and Martinborough placed second and third, respectively.
This initiative is aiming to become an annual competition to boost confidence and promote public speaking amongst Grade 5 & 6 students. This year’s competition was held under the theme “School Days” and comprised two rounds. In the first round, the participants were required to present their original prepared piece. The second round, the release said, tested the participants’ public speaking skills and their creativity through an impromptu topic that required the students to tell a story in two to three minutes of a strange and scary new teacher they met on the first day of school.
VOICE, the release said, is made up of a group of youths who believes that everyone has a voice, and it is with this voice that we are able to communicate our ideas, thoughts and feelings.
