Picture: Marie Carroll-O’Sullivan
A Killarney secondary school student has qualified for the national final of an international public speaking competition organised by the Soroptimists.
Tamika Heaphy, a fifth year student in Killarney Community College, represented Killarney at the event in the regional final in Cork at the weekend and she did her school and her town proud by qualifying.
The competition encourages girls to develop the skills to speak effectively and articulately with clarity and conviction which, in turn, them to improve their self-confidence and personality and enhance their career opportunities.
Tamika chose to speak about the topic of health and prosperity and she wowed the adjudicators with her eloquent speech and public speaking skills. She competed against five other students and secured first place and an opportunity to compete in the national final.
Tamika’s teacher, Tara O’Shea, said it was an amazing experience and public speaking skills are so important.
“We have always encouraged our students to enter public speaking competitions. As a result, our students are well versed and have very strong opinions on many global and social issues so this was the perfect opportunity for students like Tamika to showcase her talents at a national level,” she said.
Soroptimist International is a global volunteer movement working to transform the lives of women and girls with nearly 72,000 members in 121 countries. In Ireland, there are 15 clubs that work at a local, national and international level to educate, empower and enable women and girls to reach their potential. The national final will be held in Wexford on March 4 and, if successful, Tamika will be invited to speak at the International Conference which will be held in the National Conference Centre in Dublin this year.
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