BACK
BACK
Third Annual BGU v. LUJ Presentation Contest a Success
On Wednesday, October 30, five LUJ students traveled to Bunkyo Gakuin University and gave presentations related to the theme of "Change." Indeed, the world does feel like it is changing in many ways, and the variety of topics students chose reflected this sentiment.
The five LUJ participants spoke on BGU's main auditorium stage in front of around 150 students, staff and faculty. Before the ten 4-minute speeches started, winners from past contests offered good luck, including last year's LUJ winner, Jun Yoshida, who produced a video while in school in California.
The students' speeches were judged by two BGU and LUJ representatives. The audience also had a chance to vote for their favorite speech via a QR code system.
Here are the names of the five LUJ students and a brief explanation of their speech.
Shihao Du (Bard): "I Have a Change." In what was his first public speech in English, Bard's major themes were hope and having optimism in what was to come.
Karen Tsuchiya: "A Friend Changed Me." Karen's speech focused on her Filipino friend, who she met several years ago. Her friend taught her valuable lessons connected to love, kindness, and gratitude.
Juri Murakami: "Change in Our Environment." Juri focused on how the environment around her, and how circumstances connected to her family and her surroundings helped to change her character.
Crystal Mei Williams: "My Change Abroad." For Crystal, she explained in her speech the differences between school systems in Japan and Australia. Experiencing these two cultures helped her to better understand who she was and who she hoped to become.
Zainab Abdul Jalil: "The Change in Our Culture." Zainab, whose speech was awarded the "Best of LUJ," focused on the free speech restrictions in her home country of Afghanistan, and how, if she were giving this speech there, she wouldn't be allowed to. Zainab compared her country's situation to a dystopian novel...but sadly, this was not fiction...this was reality.
This was the third annual presentation contest between the two schools, and BGU has been a trusted partner institution of LUJ since 2020. Although BGU won the top prize this year, we look forward to many more years of friendly competition and thank them for providing the venue for the contest.
Follow LUJ on Instagram
