The Way They See It: Grade 10 Showcase

On May 19th, the Garden Hotel hosted our annual “The Way I See It” Showcase featuring some of the best grade 10 history students and their speeches. Overall, it was an amazing event with great food, a great audience, a great venue and great speeches.

The event took place at the Garden Hotel where the audience and the presenters were offered some amazing complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Ms. Navis commented on them, stating that the food was  “literally over the top.” Then, at around 6:30 pm, the showcase began.

The speeches were presented in the subsequent order: Sophie Elliott, Alex Kwon, Jisu Kim, Maria Elena Little Endara, Andy Jeong, Ivy Liao and Jonty Davies. They covered a range of topics from the way FDR brought America out of the Great Depression to how the philosophical concept of double consciousness can be used to understand kids from 3rd world cultures.

Along with the speakers, there were also two emcees, Ai Ni Chew and Michael Liu, who helped to introduce the speakers and their topic as well as keep the audience entertained with their clever and humorous banter.

After the speech, I interviewed three of the speakers (Sophie, Maria and Andy) who gave me some of their thoughts on how they felt during the speech and how they felt about the showcase overall.

Maria described her experience and said, “It was so much fun! Not gonna lie, I was very nervous in the minutes leading up to it, but once I got up there it felt really great. We got to present what we had worked very hard on to family, friends and other teachers. I got to listen to some really amazing speeches and learn a lot. ” Andy also expressed his opinion, “I feel that doing the speech at the Garden Hotel was a great, unique experience. There is rarely a chance where we, the students, get to go to such a formal place and get to express our thoughts in front of many adults from our AISG community.”

In the showcase, there were also tons of audience members composed of students, teachers, and family members who were not only glad to see the speeches, but also eager to learn something. According to Ms. Navis, this year also had an increase in the number of students who showed up to support their friends. For Andy, he especially enjoyed the variety in the audience, saying that, “There were students, teachers, and parents. Being able to talk about my thoughts to a variety of people really made me think that our community was coming together as a whole.” Sophie also offered her comment on the audience, describing the audience as “respectful and interested in what [she] had to say.”

Of course, the showcase did not only feature speeches from the speakers and banter from the emcees, but also a Q & A section. The Q & A sections took place after each speech. The audience was allowed to ask challenging questions to the speakers. According to Ms. Navis, the Q & A part “showed the extent of the research beyond the immediate topic focused on.” As for the presenters, the Q & A section was their most challenging section. According to Sophie, “I was asked some really good, difficult questions, some of which I didn’t really know the answers to, but I was able to think on my feet and come up with some valid answers based off of my research.” Her ideas were also shared by Maria who said, “I absolutely loved the Q&A. I find it so entertaining to discuss controversial matters and hear other perspectives. I think it teaches me a lot and is very thought-provoking. I definitely had a lot of fun with it and did my best to give thoughtful responses.”

Overall, the showcase was an amazing success. As a member of the audience at that showcase, I can honestly say that the speakers all did their best and delivered their speeches magnificently, the emcees delivered their clever and humorous banter and the audience proposed some great questions. “The Way I See It” speeches really did showcase the talent and the hard work of the Grade 10 history students. Let’s hope they do just as well, if not better, in their future speeches and let’s wish that next year’s speakers will do even a greater job!

For those of you who couldn’t come to “The Way I See It Showcase”, don’t worry, all of the speeches were recorded and will soon be uploaded in the AISG youtube account. Remember that this is an annual event, which means if you missed it this year, try to make it next year!