The Declamation Project has been part of the Grade 8 history curriculum for more than a decade and serves as the year-end capstone project for classes with teachers Bud Kohler and David Sokoloff. As a grade-level requirement, all students are required to give a declamation speech on a topic of their choosing with the goal of developing a deeper sense of global awareness while advocating for topics that are meaningful to them. Once a student chooses a topic, they perform extensive research, practice public speaking techniques, and put together a written speech that is presented to a series of judges before eight finalists are selected for the final round.

This year’s student finalists included Graysi Beck, Addie Calmanovici, Maddy Correa, Meg Defosses, Emma Gammans, Aki Ogundipe, Ben Paquin, and Ben Zegzdryn. The faculty members who served as judges included Upper School Academic Dean Justine Fellows, English Department Chair Paul Gustafson, Upper School history teacher Evan Bieder, and Learning Support Coordinator Lisa Motter.

“We would like to congratulate everyone on a successful year and wildly engaging declamation speeches as it was clear that students thoroughly prepared for the final speeches and took their topics very seriously,” said Mr. Sokoloff. “As a community, we hope you take lessons from each of these speeches as many resonate deeply and supporting these causes and the speakers should be paramount.”

 

The winners of the 2026 Declamation Project were Emma Gammans in first place with her speech on the oppression and violation of women’s rights in Afghanistan; Addie Calmanovici in second place with her speech on the history and stories of the Holocaust in Romania; and Graysi Beck in third place with her speech on the violation of rights and the discrimination of the LBGTQ+ community in Saudi Arabia.