MKA Sophomore Places 2nd in National Chinese Contest

MKA’s burgeoning Mandarin Chinese program received good news when sophomore Payson Ruhl placed second in the Beginner Section of the Eighth Annual Chinese Bridge High School Speech Contest held at the University of Massachusetts in Boston this past weekend. This is the second time in two years that an MKA student has received a prize in this competition.

Payson first started taking Chinese at MKA last year, and was among 24 finalists drawn from schools all over the country who attended the final and onsite round of the contest. She was required to give a 3-minute speech, followed by a Q & A session and was graded on her overall performance by eight judges.

Payson worked on her speech that focused on Chinese culture and gender for four months, and her MKA Chinese teacher River He notes, “As a beginner level student, Payson is remarkable in both ability and attitude, and this is a tremendous accomplishment for her personally as well as being exciting news for the school’s Chinese program.”