CHICO, Calif. — A Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts student was awarded a $4,500 scholarship after winning the Lions Club Student Speaker Contest Saturday at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico.
Lisette Perez, a sophomore, earned top honors in the district-level competition, which included participants from 14 Lions Clubs spanning from Alturas to Yuba City. Her speech, focused on the negative impacts of artificial intelligence, was selected as the winner among three finalists.
The topic of this year’s contest was “AI: Friend or Foe?” Students were required to deliver a 5- to 10-minute speech on the subject.
“I think public speaking isn't that hard,” Perez said. “You just need to practice and get used to it. It's definitely a learning experience that I think is really valuable. If there’s other students out there interested in doing something like this, they definitely should.”
Perez now advances to the area contest, which will be held May 10 in Roseville.
The district convention was hosted at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, where Action News Now anchor Kelli Saam served as one of the judges. The other finalists were Jordan Graves from Redding School of the Arts and Hayden Chappelle from Etna High School in Siskiyou County.
