By Sheila Allong

Our Grade 11 student, Jyan L. Rubillar, bravely echoed her voice in four different categories (prepared speech, oratorical speech, table topics, and inspirational speech) against more than 70 high school and college students from thirteen (13) different countries in Asia and eventually emerged as the first-runner up in the online edition of the Asian English Speech Competition held from February 20 to 27, 2022.

The first round of the contest, which was held from February 13-16, 2022, was in the form of a prepared speech wherein the contestants were asked to submit a speech video based on the 2022 AEO theme, “Echo Your Forte”. Jyan’s speech was adjudged as among the thirty (30) well-performed recorded speech so she made it to the next round, which was an oratorical speech.  This was held last February 25, 2022 and at this point, the participants were asked to create a speech based on a randomly chosen topic within 20 minutes time duration and then deliver such speech impressively and professionally within 7 minutes allowable time. Outstandingly, our representative was among the top 10 best oratorical speakers and thus made it to the semi-finals. The semi-finals held on February 26, 2022 was in a form of table topics or impromptu speech format wherein the topic was given on each participant’s turn by the selection committee and the participants were given 30 seconds to prepare their speech then deliver it within 2 minutes. Amazingly, Jyan got positive reviews from the selection committee and thus was chosen as among the top 5 winners and finalists. The five of them who made it to the finals were asked to give a 7-minute inspiring speech. The topic was only given after the announcement of the finalists and they had to deliver it the next day, February 26, 2022. Lo and behold, Jyan L. Rubillar got the second to the highest rank overall.   

The Speech Competition is one the seven (7) events included in the Asian English Olympics (AEO) organized annually for ten years now by Binus University Jakarta Indonesia. AEO is one of the biggest and most anticipated annual English competitions in Asia for high school and university students. The participating countries this year include South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Macau, among others. 

Congratulations Jyan and to the coach, Ms. Jearvy R. Laňohan!