Chen, Manning finish in Top 3 in Chinese speech contest
Upper St. Clair High School sophomores Theeya Chen and Will Manning placed in the top three during the 2022 Midwest High School Chinese Speech Contest.
Both earned Excellent Chinese Learner Awards with Chen finishing first place in Heritage Level and Manning taking third in Level 3.
The Midwest High School Chinese Speech Contest is hosted by Western Michigan University and co-sponsored by the Chicago Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China.
To enter, students were required to submit videos. For those who advanced, the final competition was held May 6 via Zoom.
In total, 11 USC students participated in the contest.
Four additional students earned Excellent Performance Awards and competed in the finals. They were senior Zinaida Kirsopp, sophomores Reese Copenhaver and Boshi Dong as well as freshman Ashton Kearns.
Five students earned Successful Participation Awards for their efforts in the preliminary round of competition – senior Judy Wang; junior Sherry Ren; and sophomores Anna Lao, Colin Liang and Jenny Wang.
All 11 participants were awarded Amazon gift cards.
Upper St. Clair High School students receive Chinese language instruction from Ms. Lixia Kang, who joined the high school faculty in 2008.
Winners of the 2022 Midwest High School Chinese Speech Contest represent high schools from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Upper St. Clair High School is the only school from Pennsylvania.
The Midwest High School Chinese Speech Contest provides a stage to showcase the achievements of high school Chinese learners and teachers, as well as to select the most qualified candidate to represent the Midwest in the Global High School Chinese Bridge Speech Contest to be held in China.