Gloucester County Public Schools Department of Secondary School Leadership held its first-ever oratorical competition in collaboration with the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation and the Gloucester Branch of the NAACP Monday morning in the T.C. Walker Education Center auditorium.
The 12 participating students from Gloucester High School and Peasley Middle School had to prepare speeches based on Martin Luther King Jr.’s famed, “I Have a Dream” speech. Their topic was titled, “Is There Still a Dream to Believe In?”
“Oration isn’t about grand speeches,” said superintendent of schools Dr. Anthony Vladu. “It’s about, every day standing up for what is right. You don’t have to be a famous orator to stand up for what is right. There is injustice in everyday life.”
“We want you to know that you are all winners,” said Dr. Lourdes Travieso-Parker, educational chair for the Gloucester NAACP. “Everybody that is here that’s taking up this challenge.”
During the competition, students had to prepar...