Rotary Invites High Schoolers to Speak, Vie for Prize Money

Vista Murrieta High School Senior Tae’Lyn Lewis won the Murrieta Four-Way Speech Contest in early 2024. This year’s contest is scheduled for December 3.

Local high school students are invited to join in the Rotary Club of Murrieta’s Marsha Hall Brown Memorial Speech Contest which offers an opportunity to capture prize monies totaling $900 at the local level and even more for the one who is selected to move to Rotary District 5330 competition.

Entries must be submitted by Friday, November 19, 2024 for the Murrieta contest which will be held at 6 p.m. on December 3, 2024 at the Murrieta Valley Unified District Headquarters, 41870 McAlby Court, Murrieta. 

View the brochure for more details. The entry application is available here and contest rules can be requested by email from Speech Contest Chair Joey Wilson at jrw4biz@gmail.com.

The contestants must speak using the Rotary Four-Way Test, which was created in the early 1930s and has been used by businesses, industry, government groups, civic organizations, schools and colleges. An ethical tenet in today’s culture, it states:

Of the things that we think, say or do:

  1. Is it the TRUTH?
  2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
  3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
  4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Four-Way Test Speech contestants are to address topics of current interest and importance and are to include and use concepts from the Four-Way Test as methods of discussion or analysis in the body of the speech.

Students competing in the speech contest must currently attend a public or private high school, charter school, or home school.  No student can compete in more than one Rotary Club contest in any one year.

The Murrieta Rotary contest will select first, second and third place winners with prizes of $400, $300 and $300, respectively.  The first-place winner will advance to District finals, to be held Saturday, March 8, 2025.

The Four-Way Speech Contest, along with other educational and community activities, is made possible through the Murrieta Rotary’s annual Murrieta Field of Honor in November.