Valparaiso University Master of Arts in Chinese Studies Program (MACS) and Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University (CIVU) are pleased to announce that they will co-sponsor the Fourth Annual High School Chinese Speech Contest on April 15, 2012 (Sunday) from 1:00 to 5:00 PM in the Gold and Brown Room of Harre Union of Valparaiso University. Contestants from high schools in the Great Lakes area will compete for prizes at two different levels. Level 1 contest is for students with one or two years of high school Chinese studies. Contestants will perform short conversational dialogues or skits in groups of two or three on topics related to everyday life. Level 2 contest is for students with more than two years of Chinese language study. Contestants will deliver individual speeches (5-7 minutes) on the topic: "My study in Chinese in the US." 

The 9 high schools that participated in the 2011 contest were: 

Illinois:

• Benito Juarez Community Academy (27 students, teacher Shan Wang) 
• Illinois Math & Science Academy (7 students, teacher Michelle Wei-Cheng) 
• Naperville North High School (7 students, teacher Piling Chu) 

Indiana:

• Rochester High School (16 students, teacher Glorial Shang) 
• Northridge High School (7 students, teacher Vera Zhang) 
• Culver Academies (3 students, teacher Ning Schultz) 
• Washington Township High School (5 students, teacher Xiao Zhu) 
• Clay High School (6 students, teacher Beverly Wu) 
• New Prairie High School (3 students, teacher Wei Han)

The organizer of the event is Dr. Benjamin Ridgway, Assistant professor of Chinese language and literature of MACS and Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of Valparaiso University.

This event is open to the general public. For more information, please contact Dr. Benjamin Ridgway at chinesecontest@gmail.com or Dr. Jiangang Liu, Associate Director of CIVU at jiangang.liu@valpo.edu.

- 2012 High School Chinese Speech Contest Invitation Letter here

- 2012 High School Chinese Speech Contest Registration Form here

- 2012 High School Chinese Speech Contest Poster here