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BHS Students explore ‘true grit’
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Boardman Speech Duo Interpretation team Kiyan Taghaboni (left) and Alicia Lawson (right) looked witchy during their speech cut on the movie "Hocus Pocus" during the World of Words presentation on Feb. 23.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Fletcher Dunham (center) took home the first place prize in the World of Words music lyrics contest with his interpretation of the event's theme, "true grit." Dunham performed his song with musical accompaniment during the Feb. 23 World of Words presentation.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Speech member Matthew Albani performed a speech cut based on the movie "Heavyweights" during the World of Words presentation at Boardman High School on Feb. 23.
By SARAH FOOR
Boardman High School’s annual “World of Words” celebration, held this year on Feb. 23, celebrates the power of words through essays, poetry, posters, videos, song lyrics and performances.
The event offers students a chance to use their skills in language arts, explore their artistic abilities and think creatively. Each year, the students must explore a theme, with this year focusing on “true grit.”
English Department leader Janie Marinucci said the theme is meant to give the students room to explore.
“’True grit’ is synonymous with courage, bravery, honor and fortitude. The theme felt like something that could be personal to many different students and is an important lesson in general. We definitely hope the kids can introduce a bit of ‘true grit’ into their own lives,” Marinucci said.
During the World of Words celebration, English students in each grade were invited to the Performing Arts Center to watch the performances of their peers.
The event provided support for Boardman’s speech and debate team, which spends its season performing in front of judges at local competitions. World of Words continues to be one of the only events where speech students can perform in front of their classmates. The show also included World of Words music lyric contest winner Fletcher Dunham performing his entry with musical accompaniment.
In addition to the Feb. 23 performances, Marinucci said that World of Words essay, poetry and poster entries included many surprising and impressive interpretations.
“The students were challenged to find literary characters who exemplified true grit and we were surprised with answers like Hester Prynne from ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ and using a modern example, Katniss Everdeen from ‘The Hunger Games.’ The theme gave the students a lot of room to explore, and they really took advantage,” said Marinucci.