On April 19, the School held the Pratt-Packard Declamation Contest. The competition concluded with Adrienne Chacón ’22 winning first place, Julian Hurley ’22 winning second, Simone Johnson ’23 winning third, and Kenadi Waymire ’22 winning fourth.
The Pratt-Packard Declamation Contest is an annual speech competition named after two former teachers: former Dean E. Stanley Pratt and former History Department Head H. Jeremy Packard ’55. The competition honors these two teachers and the passion and commitment to public speaking they brought to the community.
The contest is open to all fourth, fifth, and sixth-formers. Each participant composes a five-minute speech on a topic of their choice. Pratt-Packard gives students the opportunity to share their experiences, opinions, and quandaries with the entire Choate community. The winners are chosen based on the SPATE criteria, which stands for stance, projection, articulation tone, and eye contact.
Ms. Victoria Pierotti, one of the judges of the initial qualifying rounds, praised the contestants’ willingness to share their hidden stories. “What I admire most is how willing Choate students are to be vulnerable with their community and share their past experiences in order to help others learn.”
This year, the contest was exceptionally competitive, with twice as many entries as the previous year. After a rigorous deliberation process, four finalists were chosen to recite their speeches to the Choate community: Chacón, Hurley, Johnson, and Waymire. Each of their speeches connected to their experiences in discovering themselves and their identities.
Before the pandemic, students would convene in Colony Hall to listen to the finalists’ speeches during school meeting. However, because of physical distancing guidelines, each contestant was allowed to invite five other students and their adviser to watch the speeches in Colony Hall, while the rest of the community watched on Zoom.
Chacón discussed her struggle to connect with other Black people in her community and seeing “Blackness” as separate from her; Waymire articulated her family relationships and the challenges she has encountered growing up; Hurley spoke about the struggles of accepting his height and the toxic masculinity present in society; Johnson explored the intersectionality within her identity and experience as a Black woman. “[It was] a topic that I have been thinking about for a really long time, and it was something that a lot of people told me that they resonated with,” said Johnson. “I thought that it was important to share and have other people learn about it and understand the feelings behind it.”
Brooke Edwards ’22, who watched the speeches in-person, appreciated the way the competition shows students in a different light, beyond the image that they present in the classroom and on campus. “It was just really fascinating to hear people’s personal stories through their speeches, and discover their backstory,” she said.
