A Huge Success: Students Vie for Prizes and Pride in Korean

KENNESAW, Ga. (Mar 19, 2019) — The second annual Korean Speech & Quiz Contest held at KSU on March 2, hosted more than 300 people from all over the Atlanta. Organizing faculty Jeongyi Lee called it "a huge success."

31 speech contestants were competing in front of an exuberant, tightly packed crowd, and the following five KSU students proudly received several prizes:

Tatum Guzman: 4th Prize in Non-Heritage Level 1 ($50)
Lisset Ramirez: 4th Prize in Non-Heritage Level 2 ($50)
Maggie Seagraves: 2nd Prize in Non-Heritage Level 2 ($200)
Ben Cobb: 3rd Prize in Non-Heritage Level 3 ($100)
Alvin Kim: 3rd Prize in Heritage Level 1 ($100)

The Grand Prize, a Galaxy S10, went to a Georgia Tech freshman student, and his speech was about how crucial motivation is for foreign language learning, comparing his learning experiences of Hebrew with those of Korean.

The Quiz Contest, held in the morning, had more than 150 participants. It consisted of 50 questions about general knowledge of Korea, Korean language and culture. The following KSU students received prizes:

Zaria Howard: 6th Prize ($90)
Tamesha Mackey: 8th Prize ($70)
Kianna Cruz: 12th Prize ($30)

Dr. Jeongyi Lee was assisted by the Korean Language Club, whose officers, Lindsey Towns, Allison Dobo, and Neel Padhiar, worked diligently behind the scenes, and whom she commended for "a fabulous job." She also congratulated the wonderful group of student volunteers who worked so hard before, during and after the event. Dr. Lee also expressed her gratitude to Department of Foreign Languages' Chair Olaf Berwald, the Department, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences: "Without your support we wouldn't have made this event possible."