We welcome our guest speaker Alfi Huda, Senior winner 2021 - Lakeview College come tell us about her experience with Wynspeak on 22 Sept. Joining her was her teacher, Brittney (Lakeview college) and organiser Des O'Shanassy. We also welcome our guests Guarav Dandona, Mukhand Kaushik, Mary Peeters. We also welcome Rotary Club of Melton Lyn Leonard, and Rosina Pollino.
When you hear Alfi speak it would be hard to imaging that she is just in year 10 and such an eloquent speaker. One of the key challenges for Alfi was doing the final competition via zoom. It was one thing to talk in front of a live audience where you can gauge the mood and feel of the crowd, but when you have no one to get that vibe, you sometimes feel lost. She seemed nervous at first in doing her presentation on zoom but when you see the video of her speech you would not feel that nervousness at all. Alfi is mature for her years and her topic was on arranged marriages. She gave a personal account of her grandmother was forced to marry someone she did not even know. Whilst this is quite common in many cultures, she would not want this for herself, hence why she was so passionate about delivering the speech. It was quite different in the days when her grandmother grew up and the father would normally chose someone that they felt would help support her grandmother in life. Her grandmother had no choice but to go with the marriage to appease her family.
Both her and her teacher Brittney also gave an account of the challenges that they had for the school and how it challenged the other students to take part. Wynspeak helped the participants and the school focus on something other than the pandemic. They strongly recommend participation for all students and look forward to next year.