Each year our Rotary District 5320 supports a speech contest for high school students attending schools within our district boundries. Rotary District 5320 stretches from Catalina Island on the west, to San Clemente on the south, to Whittier on the east and Long Beach on the north.

Rotary clubs are expected to contact their local high schools and, through school administrators and faculty, encourage students to participate. Many of the schools traditionally participate each year and are already well aware of the contest’s procedures. The participants are given a theme or topic for their speech, and are invited to present their speeches to the local clubs between December and February. The participants may be judged by a panel of Rotarians, but most often, members from Toastmasters International are invited to do those honors… they are more qualified and have a formal and fair method of judging.

Between February and April, several pre-assigned clubs will invite the winners from their club competitions to compete with other club contest winners; these are called “area competitions.”

In May, the winners of the area competitions will compete for the overall winner at the District 5320 speech contest.