On Monday, February 17, the Fillmore Lions Club annual speaker contest took place and contestants waited patiently to give their speeches to the Judges. Above are the contestants who participated: Diana Martinez, Emma Victor, Christine Nguyen (winner), Diana Santa Rosa, Camila Razo and Karla Hernandez – all students from Fillmore High School. Photo credit Fillmore Lions Club.

On Monday, February 17, the Fillmore Lions Club annual speaker contest took place and contestants waited patiently to give their speeches to the Judges. Above are the contestants as they make their speeches: Diana Martinez, Emma Victor, Christine Nguyen (winner), Diana Santa Rosa, Camila Razo and Karla Hernandez – all students from Fillmore High School. Photo credit Fillmore Lions Club.

By Gaylynn Brien

Christine Nguyen, an 11th grade student at Fillmore High School, has taken the first step to winning scholarships for college by winning the Club level contest, a local competition, sponsored by the Fillmore Lions Club. The winner of the Club level contest receives $100 and all other contestants, considered “runner ups”, receive $25 in cash prizes.

Christine Nguyen’s speech was among five other contestants that included Diana Martinez, Camila Razo, Karla Hernandez, Emma Victor, and Diana Santa Rosa, all from Fillmore High School, in the annual California Lions Student Speakers Club Contest. Multiple District Four California Lions Clubs International is sponsoring the program to emphasize the importance of public speaking as a critically important life skill to young people everywhere.

The speech was selected by a panel of three judges: Janey Munoz, Doris Nichols, and Christina Villasenor. The judges looked for its originality, main points being supported by evidence, conclusion, emphasis, voice control enunciation, pronunciation, sincerity, enthusiasm, poise, cohesive effort, logic, organization, speaker persuasiveness and adhering to the topic, “Artificial Intelligence (AI): Friend or Foe”. The contest, and judging, was held on February 17, 2025 at the Fillmore Lions Club House.

The Fillmore Lions Club President, Jaclyn Ibarra, and Student Speaker Club Committee, Gaylynn Brien and Lynn Edmonds, all were impressed by the expression, creativity and talent of the students from Fillmore High School.

Nguyen will advance to the next level competition in the district, which is the Zone level contest, and will compete to win $150. The winner of the Zone level contest will advance to the Region level contest. The next levels of the contest include the District, Area, then Final level. The winner of the District will receive $4,500 in scholarships, the Area winner will receive $6,500 and the Final level winner of the competition will receive a scholarship worth $10,000. The total amount of possible scholarships that a winner can receive is $21,000.