The Rotary Club of Shepherdstown has named Luke Viands as the winner of its 2025 Four-Way Speech Contest.
The contest was held February 18 at Shepherdstown’s Bavarian Inn. A total of 11 high school students participated, all from Jefferson High School.
Aimed at encouraging high ethical standards among young people, the contest is an annual competition that invites area high school students to present original speeches that analyze a topic of their choosing from the perspective of Rotary’s core principles. Those principles subject every action to the following four-question test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Viands is a senior at Jefferson High. He enjoys theater and hopes to pursue that subject in college. The contest’s second-place winner was Ronan Bartosevich, also a senior. He plays lacrosse, hopes to join the military, and plans to attend college in the fall. The third-place winner was Miranda Hall, also a senior and currently president of the school’s student government assembly. She will be joining the U.S. Navy.
The accompanying photo shows, from left to right: Viands, Hall, and Bartosevich.
Viands received a $100 prize and earned the right to compete in a Rotary Regional Four-Way Speech Contest. If he is successful there, he will move on to a final, Rotary District Contest. The grand prize for that competition will be a $2,000 scholarship. Bartosevich and Hall received prizes of $50 and $25, respectively.
The Rotary Club thanks Jefferson High School English teacher Jennifer Glymph for encouraging her students to participate in the contest.
For more information about the Shepherdstown Rotary Club and Rotary in general, go to the Club’s web page at www.shepherdstownrotary.org.
