After winning the regional Race Unity Speech competition earlier this term Year 12 student Leo Mwape competed in the national finals in Auckland over the weekend of June 17 and 18. After presenting his speech along with the 17 other competitors on Saturday Leo was one of six selected for the finals on Sunday.
At the prizegiving on Sunday Leo was presented with the Tohu Manaakitanga - Manukau Institute of Technology Award for Manaakitanga and the Tohu Wherumatarau - Ministry for Ethnic Communities Award for Vision, a good indication of the quality of his speech and its delivery.
This year’s theme was ‘Nurture the Young’ and Leo’s speech centred on a forest metaphor – in a forest young trees grow up to replace the older trees and we see similarities in society where young people are nurtured to be the next generation of adults.
