Moorestown High School sophomore Jiahui Zhang is the winner of the American Legion High School Oratorical Contest for Burlington County.
According to legion.org, the oratorical contest has inspired knowledge and appreciation for the Constitution among high-school students since its inception. The award presents participants with an academic speaking challenge that teaches important leadership qualities; the history of U.S. laws; the ability to think and speak clearly; and an understanding of the duties, responsibilities, rights and privileges of American citizenship.
Zhang and her family emigrated to the United States six years ago, and her interests include social issues such as helping minority groups gain confidence, specifically children.
“I like finding others who are in my situation; experiencing the difficulties of adapting to a new identity,” she said. “Especially emigrating from a country that’s very … totalitarianism like China.”
“It’s a very different experience coming from a country like that, which made me really interested in debate, such in terms of the governmental level.”
Zhang, a member of the high school’s debate program, will represent Moorestown and Burlington County in the district contest. According to the American Legion, young orators earn some of the most generous college scholarships available to high-school students and more than $203,500 in awards each year.
The American Legion’s National Organization awards the scholarships, which can be used at any college or university in the United States. Zhang shared more of her experience in the contest and how she formulated her speech.
“I realized how much the concept of civic virtue played into our everyday lives,” she noted. “Civic virtue, in a simple term, is basically for an individual to put aside their selfishness and make decisions for the good of the community.”
“What inspired me to write this speech was actually research from Yale University that I’ve seen a while ago in eighth … which suggests that as humans, through evolution we are born to be selfish, but the interesting thing is that as children age and receive education in society, we become more and more moral and virtuous in terms (so) that we are making decisions that will benefit the community as a whole instead of our individual self.”
Zhang explained how although she’s more experienced with debating in a more argumentative manner, she overcame obstacles when putting her speech together, one that was almost 10 minutes long.
“To make a speech that’s more informative and educational, I had to work on a lot of word choices and tone and transition,” Zhang recalled. “Another thing is … it’s a lot of memorizations for a high-school student, and being able to walk up in front of an audience with the right delivery, the right memorization, definitely takes a lot of practice.”
Zhang shared advice for students looking to join their school’s debate program.
“Once you get into the motion of debating, if you’re passionate about a topic, you will truly immerse yourself in it,” she pointed out. “You will have to be passionate to speak, and you have to believe in what you’re talking about.”
