November 11, 2016
Contact: Jill Moberley, Director
Office of Strategic Communication
jmoberle@dps.k12.oh.us
For Immediate Release

    Jeremiah Ransom is a sixth-grader at River’s Edge PreK-6 Montessori School, but he took on a very adult subject to win the 59th annual Lucia May Wiant Speech Contest at Dayton Public Schools. His rendition of “Shake Them Haters Off” by Quint Black, took the overall prize.
    Seventeen students in grades four through eight each presented a short speech or poem of their choosing during the contest at Wright Brothers Middle School on November 9. Joining Jeremiah in the winners’ circle were second-place finisher, Marcelino Santiago, grade four at Ruskin PreK-6 School, and third-place finisher, Sukara Hodge, grade five at Louise Troy PreK-5 School. Each received a trophy and a plaque to compliment the medals they wore for winning the individual contests at their respective schools.
    Category winners were also named. Summer Thomas, grade five at Cleveland PreK-6 School, won best overall “Original Piece of Literature.” For “Best Literature Selection,” the winners were Cato Mayberry, grade six at Dayton Boys Preparatory Academy, and Daniel Ivory, grade seven at Wright Brothers Middle School.
    Lucia May Wiant was a Dayton schoolteacher and head of the speech department during the late 1890s and early 1900s. She was a noted orator of her time and published a book of quotations. Upon her death in 1949, she left an endowment for the establishment of the Lucia May Wiant Public Speaking Fund to encourage young speakers.

(DPS Photo: Overall winners from left: Sukara Hodge, third place; Jeremiah Ransom, first place; Marcelino Santiago, second place)

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