ON Wednesday, October 21, seven Bermuda High School students and their coach left Bermuda. Their destination? St. George's school, Vancouver, Canada. Their mission? To compete in The International Independent Schools' Public Speaking Tournament.

The students were to represent Bermuda against 46 other schools from Canada, the United States, England, Argentina and Cyprus.

After two long plane rides the team arrived in Vancouver, with great excitement and expectations for the four-day competition ahead. They travelled to St. George's school where they met their host families. The team split up and went back to their host homes to prepare and rest for the competition the next day.

PRIOR to the competition the Bermudian team had chosen the events in which they were going to compete. Each girl had chosen three events. The various events chosen were: impromptu speaking, parliamentary debate, radio news cast, after dinner speaking, persuasive speaking, and dramatic interpretation.

Each of the three events would be performed twice by the competitors because there were two rounds. Each round was adjudicated by three judges. The judges' scores were the sole factor that would determine who would make it to the finals and who would win individual awards. Then at the end of the competition the judges would forward their scores, comments and criticisms to the coaches of all the competitors. The team members had rehearsed the prepared events, and practised their skills for the impromptu events since September.

Therefore, at the time of the tournament the team focused on putting their full effort into performing and presenting their speeches.

SOON enough, Thursday came and the competition was on. The girls expressed mixed feelings of nervousness and excitement. The team was extremely eager to start performing their events. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were entirely devoted to competing in rounds one and two of the tournament. The team was confident and they all performed well, but gave themselves constructive self criticism and noted points on how they could improve.

During the tournament, social events were arranged so that the competitors could get to know one another better and interact with others in a more relaxed atmosphere. On Friday night the competitors were taken on a scenic bus ride to China Town in Vancouver, All of the 160 competitors ate dinner and socialised together in a large Chinese restaurant.

AFTER dinner, the competitors had the option of going to a Theatre Sports Show or going to shop in down town Vancouver. Then on Saturday night, a dance for all of the competitors was held at St. George's school. The Bermudian team really enjoyed these events because they had more time to meet public speakers from all around the world.

Sunday was the day when the finalists of each event were announced. One member of the Bermudian team, Ruth O'Kelly-Lynch, was a finalist in parliamentary debating. The awards ceremony took place at the final dinner on Sunday night.

THE Bermudian team came away with two well earned awards. Ruth O'Kelly-Lynch placed 7th out of all competitors under the age of 16 and Tara Kessaram placed 4th out of all under-16 competitors. Their teammates and coach were ecstatic and very proud of Ruth's and Tara's accomplishments.

The Bermuda High School team did very well. They were one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the entire competition yet all their speeches held up to the standards set by the other schools. Overall, the A team placed 19th and the B team placed 31st out of 49 schools.

On Monday, October 26th, the Bermuda High School's public speaking team arrived back in Bermuda, exhausted but hoping they will be able to compete again next year! *** Christie Hunter, 13, a student at BHS, was a competitor in `The International Independent Schools' Public Speaking Competition'.