Congratulations to the 15 Arlington Tech sophomores who participated in the annual oratorical contest sponsored by the Optimist Club of Arlington. They all wrote and delivered original speeches in response to this year’s prompt: How optimism has guided me through trying times.

Semi-Finalists: Aidan Stevens, Alena Zabler, Catey Wright, Ellie Rawlings, Gabriel Haynes, Jacob Browning, Jamie Pena Estrada, Kaya Spitzak, Kaylee Rojas Duran, Keren Medrano Marquez, Lilah Grace Kresse, Oleg Kaitov, Tomio Mataka, Ula Olson, Yara Shomali

After weeks of rehearsal with the help of Ms. McFarlane, English 10 teacher, and Casey Triggs, a volunteer at Arlington Career Center, the students delivered their powerful words to an audience of friends, family, and a panel of judges. At the end of the evening, five Tech sophomores were selected as district finalists: 

1st place – Kaya Spitzak – $ 1,000.00
2nd place – Oleg Kaitov – $ 900.00
3rd place – Tomio Mataka – $ 800.00
4th place – Eloise Rawlings – $ 500.00
5th place – Catey Wright – $ 300.00

On Saturday, April 26, 2025, Kaya and Oleg represented Arlington for the state contest in Richmond, where Oleg took home the prize for second in Virginia. There he won an additional $ 1,500.00. Oleg says he was glad he competed, “[I’m] absolutely thrilled, it was a good opportunity to practice my public speaking skills and a thing that I’m very proud of. I need the scholarship money for my medical school and this was a good opportunity.”

When asked what it was like preparing, he stated that it was kind of difficult. “I only had the title to go from and [I] had to interview my parents, coaches and everyone to put the speech together. I went to a lot of different people to ask and it took a lot of time to prepare for it.”

Finally, Arlington’s 5 finalists attended a luncheon at the Washington Golf and Country Club on May 21 with their families. They delivered their speeches one last time and received their scholarship checks.

The oratorical contest tradition will continue next year in English 10 classes. Cody Finnegan, a senior and former 1st placer in the oratorical, had advice for any rising sophomores who might compete next year. He suggests, “ make it personal…because optimism is your personal life philosophy and outlook. It can shape your outlook on life and you want to use very poetic and visual language.” Both Oleg and Cody believe that another thing that you can take away from this contest is public speaking skills. Cody says, “ [I was ]terrified because I wasn’t a good public speaker, but the practice made me more confident and pushed me through the fear. The experience itself is worthwhile, even if you don’t place.”

One of the oratorical contest’s biggest fans is Ms. Chung, who says that this year’s event was very inspiring and thoughtful. “Students demonstrated being courageous and showing vulnerability, [with] the life lessons that they learned and the challenges they overcame by being optimistic.”