The first Annual Bronx-Wide Speech Bee was held on December 6th 2017 at St. Raymond’s School. All Archdiocese of New York Catholic Schools located in The Bronx participated: each school sent the winner of their individual school Bees to represent the school at the Bronx-wide Bee.
The theme of this year’s Speech Bee was “Bee Better!” The event showcased The Bronx Catholic Schools’ vibrant school community of 36 schools and their extremely creative, intelligent young leaders. Students from Grades 5 to 8 presented speeches on one of these five topics:
- Sustainable Development
- Bees and their importance to our ecosystem
- Family
- Presidential Compensation: should a President be paid while in office?
- Social Media: its effects on communication, identity, privacy and validation
The event was extremely well-attended: parents, families and school faculty and staff all turned out to cheer their students on.
St. Raymond’s took home 1st place, followed by Immaculate Conception in 2nd place, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 3rd place. The first place winner was awarded with two $50 gift cards from both Bronx Regional Superintendents, in addition to a First Place Medal.
Congressional Candidate for District 14, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, covering both the Boroughs of The Bronx and Queen, gave inspiring opening remarks encouraging students to set high standards and to use their voices pave the way to future success.
All 8th grade participants received an invitation to the 2019 Northeast Great Debate hosted at Villanova University by the National Hispanic Institute in recognition of their success in winning their school-level speech bees.