Rotaract gathers eager students of all ages to ‘Speak Up’

The awards ceremony for Rotaract Karachi's Speak-up Olympiad event was held on Sunday.

KARACHI: The minute I stepped into Carlton Hotel grounds on Sunday, I could feel the tension that gripped every student. Nervous eyes followed the person who ventured close to the awards office.

“Every minute seems prolonged. It’s like this doom-ridden feeling as you await your fate,” Areeb Bhaila, a Model United Nations participant from The Lyceum School tried to explain.

These students were gathered at the last day of Speak-up Olympiad, an event organised by the Rotaract Public Speaking Forum between November 3 and 7. Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women of ages 18 to 30.

On Sunday, there were three separate events taking place at the same time: a Model United Nations conference (Rotmun), a parliamentary-style debate competition (Rotate) and an oratory competition (Rotsky).

The youngest participant in the competition was 12 years old but university students were also taking part. “Age does not limit our participants as this competition allows O-level, A-level and university students to compete on one platform,” said Rotaract president Nayel Noorani. One hour before the Rotmun awards were to be announced, the teams could be seen huddled in the hallway — most of them whispering silent prayers. On the other hand, the Rotsky and Rotate award ceremonies were being held in a far lighter and less competitive environment in adjacent halls.

Winners of Rotsky and Rotate

Fourteen-year-old Arvin Anoop from St Michael’s Convent School bagged the first place trophy in Rotsky while Saad Mashkoor from Beaconhouse (Gulshan Campus) came second and Hamza Asfar from The City School (PAF Chapter) came third.

Participants of Rotate, the debate competition, were also gathered to find out how they performed in the previous five days. Asad Javed from Aga Khan University (AKU) managed to win the award for best speaker even though he felt “it was a tough competition”. “Even with all the research we did beforehand, there were times we felt we were missing out,” he recalled.

“It was a great night for AKU,” said Laila Babar, a member of AKU Team A. Not only did they win the first prize but also took the title for the ‘Best Rotate Team’. “All the hard work paid off though since we managed to win,” said Azfar Ahmed happily.

A number of parents were also present at the ceremony and could not hide their feelings as they embraced their children. “It’s a great feeling to see our kids succeed at such a young age,” exclaimed a parent. “This opportunity was one of a kind and many more should open up for our talented youth.”

The Rotmun award ceremony

This Model United Nations conference was held over a three-day period, with each of the six committees - United Nations Security Council (SC), Disarmament and International Security Committee, Special Political and Decolonisation (SpecPol), Economics and Financial Committee, International Atomic Energy Agency and Crisis Committee (CC) - having six sessions. “This was perhaps the toughest and most intense part of the Olympiad,” said the crisis committee co-chair, Shaun Ansari.

“The SC and CC are regarded by most as the toughest committees as they are both political and CC requires a lot of on-the-spot thinking,” explained Taimoor Noorani, the SC committee director. “You never know what will be thrown your way.”

Sources claimed, on the other hand, that the toughest competition was in SpecPol as they had the best debaters. SpecPol committee director Yawar Ali Khan added that his committee passed two resolutions. “This is unprecedented and shows that this year we had talented and hardworking delegates,” he said.

The hall was full 20 minutes before the ceremony began. Few members of each committee received awards for Best Position Paper, Honourable Mentioned and Best Delegate. “The total numbers of awards received by each team were tallied to determine which school wins,” explained Noorani.

Karachi Grammar School was handed a trophy for securing the first place after their total points added up to 71. The Institute of Business Administration Karachi came second with 68 points and The Lyceum School came third with 58 points.

“This was our first successful Olympiad,” said Rotmun secretary-general Shemrez Nauman Afzal, proud to have “maximised leadership and professional development of the participants in an educational and enjoyable environment”. “We hope to continue this endeavour and make the second one an international conference,” he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2010.