By LEDEDRA MARCHE

Senior FN Reporter

Defending Junior Achie-vement National Speech champion Samuel Brown won over 14 other finalists in Grand Bahama Thursday night and will travel to the capital for a chance at be-coming the two-time national winner.

The 15 Junior Achieve-ment/Toast Masters 2008 speech finalists duked it out at Worker's House last week after surviving a highly contested semi-final round on Sunday, February 10, on the Grand Bahama Catholic High campus.

A total of 54 students from various high schools and JA companies participated during the semi-final event held in conjunction with Toast-masters and included several judging teams.

From that group, Edrico Armbrister, Joanna Brown, Samuel Brown, Lauteisha Cartwright, Rhashanna Curry, Kamal Dames, Lancelot Darville, Jr., Lashelle Forbes, Janiesha Gibson, Rolanda Laing, Frumentia Leon, Davana Mackey, Janae Thompson, Tredecia Wilchcombe and Bria Williams emerged as finalists and went on to compete for the prestigious "Champion of Champions" title.

Sam Brown also placed second in the Texaco Competi-tion last year, but the Grand Bahama Catholic High student was not to be outdone.

The 12th grade word wizard pulled out all of the stops and will try to do it all over again in the nationals with fellow team mates Lancelot Darville, Jr., and Kamal Dames.

The trio will leave for New Providence with a contingent of about 70 achievers and advisors from Grand Bahama on Thursday to attend the Bahama Junior Achievement Conference (BahamaJAC).

Darville, 16, also a 12th grader at Catholic High, who came in third in the Grand Bahama Speech Competition last year, is no stranger to the national competition either, having been a contended last year.

The BahamaJAC convention begins on Thursday where achievers and advisors from around The Bahamas will take part in lectures and tours.

The workshop and speech competition is set for Saturday and the Grand Bahama group will return on Sunday.

Boasting of the high calibre of contestants in the local competitions, JA Programme Manager for Grand Bahama Ron Dames also revealed that this year was a record-entry year.

"We generally have somewhere between 30 and 34, so the interest has really been elevated. I think, in general, the students have become more courageous in public speaking," he said.

The speeches are centred around this year's theme: Passion for Achievement.

"I think the judges had a very hard time. This year I can securely say it was one of the most competitive in that the students are becoming more and more talented," Dames said, adding that many of them are now reciting their speech from memory.

He described the finals as highly competitive and hotly contested.

The JA programme is mainly geared towards developing successful entrepreneurs. Speech workshops, leadership courses and community work are also a part of the programme which runs for 25 weeks.

The students hail from private and public schools on the island from grades 10, 11, and 12.

There are seven JA companies this year on Grand Bahama and Dames commended the sponsoring companies — Bahamas Tele-communications Company, Bahamas Oil Refining Company, National Insur-ance Board, Bahamas Agric-ultural and Industrial Corp-oration, PharmaChem Techn-ologies and the Grand Bahama Shipyard — for their continued support

The top three finalists will also automatically be entered in the Texaco Safety Speech Competition in New Providence.

The top nine finalists in the Texaco Competition receive automatic prizes including a lap top while the top three finishers have a chance at attaining a scholarship for as much as $10,000.

Grand Bahama has set a serious precedence in the JA Nationals in recent years having won first and second place in the last two years.

"Grand Bahama has been on the map in terms of leadership and speaking when we look at the entire JA programme. I'm sure we'll be going strong to defend our title again," said Dames.

HE DID IT AGAIN! — Grand Bahama Catholic High's Sam Brown delivering his winning speech Thursday night at Worker's House in the Junior Achievement/Toastmasters 2008 speech competition. (Photo by DEREK CARROLL)