A new year and a new proposition was given to The Columbus School students. The acclaimed world leader in international education, EF, approached the numerous student body in mid-January with a tempting contest involving a video camera and a willing Junior.

The EF challenge, being a world-wide oratory competition that pursues pupils around the globe, to use creative matters to provide an answer to a universal question that changes annually before the contest is renewed. Sofia Niño, a Junior at TCS has proven to be after the prize, consequent to a year and a half seeking the opportunity to go to Germany and learn the language, this is her chance.

“It’s a nice speech contest, has nice prizes, and I’m really excited for the prizes because they fit me perfectly, however, I feel that is going to be a contest for privileged schools. The opportunities are nice but I don’t think is going to be revolutionary,” Said Niño, “It was designed for myself; I want to learn German, go to Berlin to like the language.”

The prizes involves a trip to New York with a full-on participation in the EF summer program, and also a 100% scholarship to any of the listed headquarters around the world in to go study a desired language. ‘What does sustainable development mean to you?’ the question that this year’s participants will have to resolve while chasing the ultimate winning spot.

“At first I was rather in shock…throughout the years the school has tried to do some innovative things, but they never go through with it. We’ve never heard about this before…One day our teacher comes and tells us about this contest that’s been going on since forever (although not at TCS),” Said Niño.

When it was first brought up by the 11th grade English teachers, the students were quite skeptical of the dependability of the school about the project. Were they really going to follow through the new project for the school? The board of directives are really looking forward to the school’s participation.

“Having students thinking about how they can improve the world, through a speech, just in itself as growth process for that particular person, as they go,” said Roger Arbabi TCS’s High School principal. “And it can really be a game changer. When you got people thinking directly about how they can actually make a positive contribution to the world is really big. It can be on the macro level and on the micro level.”