Excellence and awards
Young voices heard loud and clear
L–R: State Final Winner Wesley Chen from Caulfield Grammar,
and State Final runner-up Corbin Afanasyev
from Nossal High School, at the Wheeler Centre.
Speeches on the importance of traditional languages in preserving cultures and the recent public backlash against trans communities took out first and second place respectively at the state final of the Plain English Speaking Award (PESA) 2023.
The final, held on Friday 21 July at the Wheeler Centre, was emceed by Zuva Goverwa, winner of the Victorian State Final in 2021. Wurundjeri Elder Tony Garvey opened the event by offering the Welcome to Country, followed by VCAA CEO Steven Gniel. Rani Thuan, Top Class and Top Acts musician from The Season of Excellence 2023, performed throughout the state final.
Six state finalists spoke on themes of race, class, culture, capitalism, and gender. Full recordings and transcripts of each speaker are available on the
PESA page.
Wesley Chen from Caulfield Grammar won with his speech ‘The Importance of Linguistic Heritage in a World of Globalisation’.
When Wesley’s grandpa visited Australia from China, they had no shared language and could not communicate. ‘Since that interaction with my grandpa, I knew I had to do something about it, about the embarrassment I felt, about the frustration of not being able to speak to him.’
In his speech, Wesley explored the connection between language, culture, and history with nuance and passion. ‘When we lose the ability to communicate in a certain language, we lose the chance to learn about the traditional wisdom of that culture, knowledge which has been distilled and refined through countless generations,’ he reflected.
‘The essence of cultural preservation lies within the ability to sustain language. And practicing traditional languages, whether written or spoken, is a fundamental right.’
Corbin Afanasyev from Nossal High School was runner-up with his speech ‘The Culture War’. Corbin delivered a blistering critique of the Australian public’s rhetorical attacks on transgender communities. ‘One effect this has had on real people’s lives is to limit the access of transgender folk to life-saving medical care,’ Corbin said.
‘The widespread arguments surrounding transgender healthcare has made it politically challenging to provide special training to medical practitioners and to fund accessible public gender-affirming treatment, especially for young people.’
The VCAA hosts the public speaking competition each year, inviting students aged 15–18 years from government, Catholic and independent schools to deliver speeches on topics they have thoroughly researched and feel passionate about.
Each are then given the same prompt and 4 minutes to prepare a 3-minute impromptu speech. Adjudicators make their selections based on three categories – depth of research and quality of analysis; degree of logic and structure in developing an argument; and delivery.
The VCAA congratulates Wesley, Corbin and all other finalists for their remarkable speeches.
Applications for the VCE Season of Excellence 2024 and Margaret Schofield Memorial Scholarships
Eligible students who are undertaking VCE or VCE Vocational Major are invited to apply for the following opportunities:
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Top Designs – Students of VCE Systems Engineering, Media, Visual Communication Design, Product Design and Technology, and VCE VET Creative and Digital Media, Engineering Studies, Furnishing, Integrated Technologies, and Music (Sound Production)
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Top Screen – VCE Media Film students
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Top Class Sound – students of Music Inquiry, Music Repertoire Performance, Music Contemporary Performance and VCE VET Music Industry (Performance). Please note that students of VCE Music Composition will be selected from their Externally Assessed Task
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Margaret Schofield Memorial Scholarships – government-school students of VCE Music Composition, Music Inquiry, Music Repertoire Performance, Music Contemporary Performance and VCE VET Music Industry (Sound Performance)
All application forms will be available online from 1 September.
If you would like to receive email reminders of when VCE Season of Excellence applications open and close, please complete the
registration form.
If you have any queries about the application process, contact the VCE Season of Excellence team at
seasonofexcellence@education.vic.gov.au.
Notices to schools