Tuesday, December 20, 2011 By Parbi Boodaghian PRESENTING TOPICS: Seniors Vincent Van Hoek, and Julius Patrick Vergara present the topics of their senior project research papers to their classmates. English teacher Carol Pettegrew and Conrad Pruitt said that their regular English classes will be doing similar speeches later on in the year. - Randi Robins Advertising Seniors showcase speaking skills (Dec. 20, 2011) -- “Why do people call fast food ‘fast food’? You’re supposed to eat it fast or else you’ll taste it.” These were the opening words of senior Julius Patrick Vergara’s senior project speech on Dec. 12, which was about the roles of biotechnology in the food industry. After the seniors in English teacher Stephanie Sajjadieh’s AP Literature class turned in their 6-8 page persuasive research papers before Thanksgiving break, they started preparing for the next step of their senior project, the in-class speeches. The speeches started Nov. 30 and continued through today. Students were supposed to keep their speeches within the time limit — four minutes — with a 30-second grace period. However, most students went over that time limit. In Vergara’s case, he took five minutes and two seconds to argue for the benefits of biotechnology. “Without [biotechnology] we would not be able to sustain a growing population,” Vergara said. “It is used to enhance or add things that otherwise through natural selection wouldn’t allow.” Vergara said that his senior project reflects his interest in science, particularly biology because he enjoys studying about life’s processes. After the speech, Sajjadieh asked Vergara why he thinks untested food that is harmful gets into the market. Vergara responded by saying that sometimes the FDA is “blatantly oblivious” to dangerous products. Taking a different path, senior Vincent Van Hoek decided to shed a more favorable light on skateboarding. Van Hoek said that skateboarding has become more recognized as a popular sport and that skateboarders are involved in their communities. “They’re not a bunch of rowdy kids who are druggies and just a societal nuisance,” Van Hoek said, “and we should support them by building skate parks.” In his speech, which lasted four minutes and 45 seconds, Van Hoek argued that stereotypes from previous generations should not be applied to newer skateboarders. He said that he had gotten the idea for this topic from librarian Susan Newcomer. For his final project that will be presented to a panel of judges in June, Van Hoek will build four longboards from Canadian maple and bamboo. He said that Canadian maple can be easily manipulated into shapes with the advantage of being sturdy. As for the bamboo, he picked it “because of its flex when you stand on it.” Senior Sargis Vardumyan decided to pick a topic that would be relevant to the field he wants to pursue after high school: engineering and green energy. “I read that pollution kills thousands of women and children and I thought ‘hey, something must be done,’” Vardumyan said. It took Vardumyan two days to finish his outline for the speech and a few hours to practice for it. The practice paid off when he finished his speech in three minutes and 39 seconds. Vardumyan said that for his final project, he will make an energy generator using magnetism to create bits of energy by motion. “Rotating magnets around a coil creates electricity using magnetism. It is my goal to make a gravity wheel which will have series of magnets on it,” Vardumyan said. He said that the wheel will rotate for long periods of time with just a single push. The magnets on the side of the wheel, Vardumyan said, will generate electricity as the wheel rotates. While Vardumyan argued for alternative energy for improving the environment, senior Elin Bassavand ventured off on a quest to promote better welfare and working conditions for workers at sweatshop factories. Bassavand said sweatshop factories are unethical and unfair. “They exploit women and children,” she said. “They should prohibit sweatshops or give the workers better working conditions and higher wages.” She also argued that underage workers should not be hired “so they could actually get an education and grow like any other child their age,” Bassavand said. According to Bassavand, after the speech someone asked her why they should worry about this issue, since the practice doesn’t occur in the U.S. Bassavand said she responded by saying, “There are a lot [of sweatshops] in the U.S, so we should help out the workers and take a stand instead of sitting back and doing nothing.” She said that she is proud of the response she gave. Bassavand received a B plus, which she attributes to her being “super nervous.” Sajjadieh said, “Public speaking is probably the scariest thing in the world for a lot of people.” She said that by practicing frequently, “the fear will dissipate,” which is one goal of this assignment. Sajjadieh said that there are about 30 different topics in a class of 36. According to Sajjadieh, some of the most common topics included social security, space programs, green buildings, and outsourcing products to other countries. She said that e-readers and the Dream Act were among a few of the new topics this year. Whatever the topic, she said that she hopes “to see a sense of mastery and ownership of having put those ideas together in the paper,” as well as showing other students what their classmates are doing without having to wait until June. Even though she said this year the topics were less varied from other years, the students have also been more prepared than the ones in other years. “In other years some people thought they could go and do an extemporaneous speech,” Sajjadieh said. But then they would mess up, she added. But she said, “If you really know [the topic] then you can say it without it sounding rehearsed.” Sajjadieh said that students need to work more on gesturing because that is usually how people speak during regular conversations. “Ones that use their body to communicate are the stronger speakers,” Sajjadieh said. Senior Vahe Baboomian will be presenting today about robotics in the future and how they will benefit society. He said that he will try to avoid certain actions that he has noted in other people’s speeches. He said he will “focus more on talking and explaining what I want to say in a calmer and more personal way,” instead of “memorizing the speech word for word,” Baboomian said. “When you know what you are going to address,” Baboomian said, “and in what order you are going to address them in, all the ideas flow out more naturally and it is easier for the audience to relate to what you are presenting.”

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