Two students from George Mason University’s Modern and Classical Languages Korean Studies program won top awards at the Mid-Atlantic Korean Speech Contest. Senior Fatimah Sultan (Korean Studies major) won the Grand Award, and sophomore Tania Trott (Korean Studies minor) won the Excellence Award.
Fatima participated in the competition for the advanced- level and gave a speech titled, "Fluency is more important than accuracy when learning a foreign language." She was selected as the grand prize winner in recognition of her in-depth descriptions on the topic and outstanding presentation skills in Korean. As a prize, Fatima will participate in a study abroad program hosted by Korea University in Seoul, Korea with tuition, accommodation, and airfare fully paid by the sponsors. She felt “incredibly honored to be awarded the Gold and Grand Prizes.” Fatima added, “I am usually not someone who excels in public speaking, but I was eager to take this chance to prove to myself that I can push my boundaries and succeed in a Korean-related environment.” She expressed how “ecstatic” she was about winning the prize and felt “grateful” to Mason’s Korean Studies program for continuously supporting her and making this all possible.
Another competitor from George Mason, Tania Trott (Korean minor), won the basic-level’s Excellence Award for her speech, "My Role Model." Tania spoke about her high school Korean teacher who fostered and encouraged her to follow her dreams. Tania received a scholarship of $800 as a prize.
The competition selected one Excellence Award winner from basic, intermediate, and advanced levels, and the Grand Award was determined from among these top three winners. The audience and judges were surprised by the results since two of the three finalists were from George Mason.
Professor Ji-hye Moon, who led the selection process and training of students to represent George Mason at this competition stated, "I am honored because these results display the excellence of language education at GMU. Our language department has been enhancing the learners’ language and cultural competence through various activities such as polyglot, short film productions, speech contests, etc."
The Mid-Atlantic Korean Speech Contest is hosted by a consortium of 11 universities with Korean Studies programs, including George Mason University, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, and the University of Virginia. The local community and the Korean Culture Promotion Agency are providing full support for this meaningful event to promote Korean Studies in higher-education institutions.