The Stark Reading Contest is a speaking competition held locally by the Stark Foundation. This contest is available to students enrolled in the area’s high schools and includes different categories and separate competition levels, and offers prizes worth different amounts of scholarships for winners.
“The contest has two categories: declamation (speeches) and interpretive reading which is similar to UIL Prose and Poetry,” librarian Melanie Claybar said.
Alongside these two categories, students also compete at two separate levels: school and county finals. At the school’s final, the first-place winner of each category receives a $2,000 scholarship. Second-place winners will receive a $1,500 scholarship. At the county level, first-place winners receive $5,000, and second-place receives $2,500.
“We are guaranteed $7,000 in scholarships just for our local contest,” Claybar said. “That’s four out of ten students competing at the local level who will receive a scholarship.”
There are multiple different criteria students will be judged for at each level of competition, in regards to the piece itself and the student’s presentation of it.
“Students are judged on delivery and presentation of the selected piece: proper pronunciation, enunciation, tone, volume, and inflection,” Claybar said. “The selection should be appropriate for the student, and they should be familiar enough with it to have a smooth reading, but it should not be memorized. It is also important that the contestant demonstrates awareness of the audience of the selection as intended by the author.”
Even if students are not planning to go to college, the Stark Reading Contest offers good practice for other aspects of life they may wish to pursue.
“Many students are not comfortable with public speaking, so this contest is a wonderful opportunity to practice and polish those skills,” Claybar said. “The contest is usually performed with a small audience, so it is not as overwhelming as speaking in the classroom or a larger group.”
