Speech Competition Winners Announced  

Thirty-one  fourth, fifth and sixth graders competed on May 9 in the annual Bank of America Speech Competition at the Larry Reider Education Center in downtown Bakersfield. Each of the participants delivered a three to five minutes speech based on an essay they had previously written on the topic of “How Much Screen Time is Too Much Screen Time?”

Essay competition began at the school level.  Each school judged the writing and nominated one fourth, fifth and sixth grade student essay writer to represent the school. Essays were then judged by a panel of teachers and the 31 finalists were identified for tonight’s speech contest.

Bank of America’s South Sierra Valley Market and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS) sponsor the competition, which awards trophies to all the finalists and Russo’s Books gift cards to the top three finishers in each grade level.

2019 Bank of America Essay and Speech Contest top three finishers:

Fourth Grade:
1^st – Karthika Saravanan – Discovery Elementary
2^nd – Elizabeth Reyes – Jefferson Elementary
3^rd – Jasmine Bajwa – Stockdale Elementary

Fifth Grade:
1^st — Ashlyn Montelongo – Sierra Vista School
2^nd — Angelica Pantoja – Bear Mountain Elementary
3^rd — McKinley Iger – Endeavour Elementary

Sixth Grade:
1^st — Habiba Alnahhal – Christa McAuliffe Elementary
2^nd — Anjana Chandrasekhar – Reagan Elementary
3^rd — Breaw Hale – American Elementary