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Water speech earns Burnaby student national silver

An impassioned speech on the global water crisis earned a Burnaby French immersion student a silver medal at a national public speaking contest.
Concours d’art oratoire, Hamish Clinton
Alpha Secondary Grade 12 student Hamish Clinton, left, with Canadian Parents for French president Jane Keith at the provincial Concours d’art oratoire in May.

An impassioned speech on the global water crisis earned a Burnaby French immersion student a silver medal at a national public speaking contest.

Alpha Secondary Grade 12 student Hamish Clinton advanced to the Canadian Parents for French Concours d’art oratoire national competition, held in Gatineau, Que. on May 28th, after winning gold in the early immersion category at the provincial event on May 7 in Surrey.

Up against 11 other competitors from across Canada in his category, Clinton won second place for his speech “La crise globale de l’eau.”

The Alpha grad has since been offered scholarships from the University of Ottawa, l’Université de Saint-Boniface, the University of Moncton and l’Université Sainte-Anne.

Six other Burnaby students took home top awards at the 33rd annual Canadian Parents for French B.C. & Yukon provincial competition earlier in the month. First-place finishes went to Burnaby North Grade 10 student Arshia Shirbani in core French and Burnaby Mountain Grade 10 student Yasmin Rajwani in French immersion.

Second place went to Cariboo Hill Grade 12 student Katrina Berry in late immersion, and third-place finishes went to Moscrop Grade 9 student Joanne Kim in the francophone category and Seaforth Elementary Grade 6 student Troy Cheah in early immersion.