Take the Lead

Five Minutes.
Four Rooms.
Three Prizes.
Two Rounds.
One Scholarship.

Are you passionate about the topic of women in leadership? Do you like explaining your ideas to others? Would a full fall/winter academic scholarship to Brescia enable you to go after your post-secondary education pursuits? 

Take the Lead, an annual high school public speaking contest hosted by Brescia and iWIL, empowers women in Grades 11 and 12 to speak boldly about women in leadership.

Speaking Topics

Registered participants research and prepare a five minute speech about women who are catalysts for change. The topic is as broad as that. You can choose to speak about female leadership throughout history, someone famous who has inspired you, a community member who makes an impact – whatever topic truly inspires you.

The Prizes

Third Place – A cheque for $100
Second Place – A cheque for $250
First Place – A full one year fall/winter scholarship to Brescia University College

Each contestant will also receive a certificate of participation, and a Brescia prize pack and participation in Take the Lead will be added to your co-curricular transcript should you choose to enroll at Brescia for your studies.

The Event

When: Saturday March 31, 2012
Where: Brescia University College’s Auditorium in the St. James building
Agenda: (Please note, the timing of the event will be dependent upon the number of participants who register. This is simply an example of how the2010 event ran.)

9:30 a.m.	Registration (Foyer)
10:30 a.m.	Welcoming remarks from the Principal of Brescia, Dr. Colleen Hanycz
11:00 a.m.	Preliminary round (Approximately 6-8 contestants will be assigned to a classroom. They will then present their speech to a panel of approximately 2-4 judges.)
12:00 p.m.	Lunch and tours of Brescia
1:30 p.m.	Finalist round (Those girls who received the highest scores in the preliminary rounds will present their speech again to a panel of ‘celebrity judges’ who will determine the winner of the full-year scholarship to Brescia.)
3:00 p.m.	Winner announced/closing remarks

What are the judges looking for from my speech?

If you want to know exactly what criteria your speech will be scored with, view this scorecard PDF.

How do I sign up?

Please use our handy registration form to register for this year's contest.

I still have questions!

If you still have questions, please contact Michele Feeser at mfeeser@uwo.ca