A Umashankari has excitement written all over her face. Understandably, considering that the Class 11 student of Jaigopal Garodia Higher Secondary School, Choolaimedu, is all set to fly to Japan, having talked her way to victory at the oratorical competition that goes by the same name.
The youngster has been selected as the cultural ambassador of Tamil Nadu to the Shiga Prefecture where the Hiyoshi Corporation, the company that hosted the contest jointly with ABK-AOTS DOSOKAI, is located. At the 16th edition of the competition held recently to develop the Japan-India cultural relationship and to highlight environment conservation, she showed her ability to capture the core idea of the need to spread awareness on conservation.
She will leave for Japan in October for a two-week programme on environmental study and cultural exchange. She will be accompanied by four other students who made the mark in the three other categories of the competition, namely non-matriculation school, Japanese school and college level. They will receive hands-on training in environmental analysis at the labs of Hiyoshi Corporation and will visit places that preserve the cultural heritage of Japan.
There was stiff competition among 49 students from 29 schools. Umashakari, also the school topper in Class 10, attributed her win to her teachers’ coaching. “I wouldn’t have been able to speak about the various factors affecting the environment without their help,” she says.
“While the first round had all the participants render a speech about the need for nuclear power in a developing country like ours, the second round was an on-the-spot contest and was really tough,” she adds.
She confesses that the most nerve-racking moment was when the six finalists were handed sealed envelopes with their topics. But she breezed through the final 15 minutes where the finalists unleashed their creativity and spoke on the need to save environment from Nature’s perspective.
Ask her what the student community can do to battle pollution and pat comes the reply, “We can take steps to promote greenery in schools and do our part to spread awareness to control pollution.”
She will travel with the other winners — K Vignesh of Vel’s Vidhyashram, K Rugmani of a Japanese school and Sreejith of Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam.
“I want to learn more about the heritage of Japan. I also want to learn a few words in Japanese,“ she says with a smile.