Three brave and expressive students took the stage in Brauer Auditorium for the 108th annual Prize Speaking competition. The English Department sponsors this long-standing tradition, which involves each one of the orators performing a well-rehearsed, memorized, one-and-a-half to two-minute-long monologue from a play or literary piece.
This year’s participants were Isabelle Cox-Garleanu ’26, performing an excerpt from City of Glass by Paul Auster, Evita Okohson-Reb ’26, offering an excerpt from All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, and Nina Schuerer ’25 with an excerpt from Watchmen by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins. The contestants completed auditions earlier in the fall and then practiced their pieces with Nicole Trueman-Shaw, Director of Upper School Student Leadership & Dean of Students, honing them to perfection before delivering them in front of the full Upper School.
Our judges this year were Upper School Arts Teacher Carolyn Hood, Upper School History Teacher Andy Cox, Upper School Science Teacher Brian Coco, and Upper School English Teacher Courtney Check. JK-12 English and Language Arts Department Chair Lynn Mittler served as the tie-breaker. They scored the presenters’ vocal choices, body language, and connection to both the audience and the piece itself. After the recitations, they deliberated in the Hearth Room to determine the 2024 winner while the Upper School assembly continued.
Once the winner was determined, Trueman-Shaw took the microphone and asked the contestants to return to the stage, where she announced that Okohson-Reb is the winner of the 2024 Prize Speaking competition. Per tradition, Okohson-Reb’s name will be inscribed on the Dartmouth Cup, which is displayed throughout the year on the MICDS campus.
Congratulations to Evita Okohson-Reb ’26 for winning the 2024 Prize Speaking competition!