at the International Public Speaking Competition in May in London. She delivered a speech on the theme ‘Culture is Not a Luxury But a Necessity’. Adhele won her Heat delivering it and progressed to the Semi-final at the IPSC in London. The Ambassador of Estonia to the UK, HE Lauri Bambus came to support her. The IPSC, now in its 35th year, is the largest public speaking competition in the world. Run by the English Speaking Union’s Speech & Debate team at Dartmouth House, the IPSC involves 40,000 students in over 50 countries. This year the competition took place between 11 and 15 May, with 50 international delegates arriving in London from all corners of the globe. Throughout the week, students participated in a range of activities centred on both communication and cultural exchange. Activities included visiting and participating in workshops at Shakespeare’s Globe, seeing a musical in London’s West End, and working with some of the ESU’s most experienced Speech and Debate Mentors. Participants engaged in two days of competition, with the heats and semi-finals taking place at Dartmouth House, followed by the Final at the Headquarters of HSBC in Canary Wharf.
Grand Final Day of the International Public Speaking Competition, Adhele and Jane Easton (with Deivi Õis, winner of NPSC 2013 and a finalist of the IPSC 2013 in the background)
The six participants to reach the final were: Yannish Dyall (Mauritius) Pierre-Louis Hance (Belgium) Inês Novais (Portugal) Alma Ágútsdóttir (Iceland) Shuning Fu (China) Khaleel Rajwani (Netherlands) For the Grand Final the participants gave speeches that returned to the theme that had been given for the National Competitions some months in advance – ‘To Be Ignorant of the Past is to Remain a Child’. The adjudication panel, led by Rosie Millard (former BBC Arts Correspondent, journalist for The Times, The Independent, and New Statesman, Chair Hull City Culture), who was joined by Leela Koenig (Head of Speech and Debate at the ESU), and Judy Foote (HSBC Community Investment Programmes), had a tough decision between the six speakers. The results reached were: Winner: Alma Ágútsdóttir, ‘It’s Ignorance, It Isn’t Bliss’ (Iceland) Runner-up: Khaleel Rajwani, ‘Outgrowing Our Traditions’ (Netherlands) Audience Choice Award: Pierre-Louis Hance, ‘The Great Alliance’ (Belgium) Zinaida Jevgrafova Jewish School of Tallinn
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