Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

When the idea of writing a biweekly column was pitched to me, I was asked to write about Pokemon Go and other interests I enjoy outside of working for the Mirror and the West High Street Subway restaurant of Ebensburg.

However, this week, I want to do something different and give kudos to the high school students who participated in last week’s Heritage Conference Impromptu Speech Competition at the Northern Cambria High School, for which I was one of three judges.

High school-age students from 12 school districts were given five minutes to prepare a speech about one of four topics they weren’t given beforehand. They then had three minutes to effectively deliver their remarks in front of the judges without any notes.

This year’s topics included two prompts — one about whether students and teachers should be held to different standards when it comes to using artificial intelligence in classrooms, another on what effects students think automated, self-driving vehicles will have on their generation — a famous quote by Aristotle and a famous person, Ilona Maher, an Olympic bronze medalist.

The AI prompt seemed to be the most popular topic picked among the speakers, who made valid arguments about whether teachers should be permitted to use AI.

Many who argued in favor said teachers can use AI as a tool to help them develop lesson plans and be more productive — since they have already developed a strong sense of knowledge about the subjects they are teaching while students still need to learn the material.

Those who argued against AI’s use in the classroom, like Cambria Heights junior Sarah Huber, said AI creates misleading information, lacks creativity in its responses and sets a bad example for students if their teachers can use it to take shortcuts but they can’t.

Students were evaluated by the judges in four categories — an introduction as well as their content, organization and delivery — with a rubric out of 30 points.

Huber was one of only four students who earned a perfect score from me. She, along with Cambria Heights senior Lucas Demi, whom I also gave a perfect score to, were the district’s top scorers.

After the Cambria Heights students gave their speeches, it was axiomatic that they were going to win the competition, which they did. But the perfect scores and outstanding performances didn’t stop there.

I also awarded perfect scores to students from the Portage Area and River Valley school districts.

If an award could have been given out for being the most comfortable and knowing how to react to unforeseen circumstances, it would have gone to Northern Cambria senior Tyler Bradley, whom I accidentally gave the nod to start his speech before one of the other judges was ready.

Bradley handled the situation well and went on to deliver arguably

one of the most entertaining speeches about self-driving vehicles that I’ve ever listened to in under three minutes.

In general, students in the competition did a fine job of keeping within the allotted time restrictions — though some did go over with their time.

Even if it was by a few seconds, I took off a single point from the rubric’s delivery category, which evaluated their appropriate level of confidence.

I tried to be fair with my evaluations, which judges had to make within seconds before the next student walked on stage.

Every student announced their name, grade, school and topic at the beginning of their speeches, and every student earned a perfect score from me in the introduction category.

Unless students were going to sing their introductions, it would have been difficult to “exceed expectations” by simply stating their names. Likewise, I felt it was hard to deduct points for something that simple, and it made the judging process move a lot faster to give everyone three points for their introductions.

Where some students didn’t earn a perfect score, at least from me, was in their content and organization.

Students who remembered their prompt and gave at least two arguments earned the full three points for their content. If they deviated from the prompt but presented relevant information to back up their claims, I gave them two points for meeting expectations.

However, all students, regardless of where they placed, gained valuable experience in thinking, organizing and effectively delivering their thoughts to an audience from participating in the competition.

I think that’s worth commending.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520 and mchurella@altoonamirror.com