Six UNG students entered the annual Japanese Speech Contest on Saturday, March 5th, where high school and college students from all over Georgia competed. Five won a prize in their respective category, including the grand prize: a round-trip air ticket to Japan. It was a virtual event this year.

Category 2
3rd place: Adrian Abreu
Special Award (practically 4th place): Uriel Leon
Category 3
1st place (grand prize): Susana Olivo Sandoval
3rd place: Jonathan Lomas
Special Award (practically 4th place): Duncan Ray

Cursten Howard, a senior majoring in East Asian Studies with a Japan concentration and the grand prize winner of the 2020 contest, successfully served as an emcee for the event. Also, Dr. Tomoe Nishio served on the organizing committee of the contest.

All the UNG students put a lot of effort to prepare for the event with help from the Japanese Fulbright Teaching Assistant, Kota Ozaki, Professor Sawako Tsutsumi, and Dr. Tomoe Nishio in the Japanese Program. Some students worked with their transpacific peers from Nanzan University to prepare and practice their speeches.
All the speeches are accessible on the GATJ website.