And the winners of the 7th annual Japanese speech contest are...

Two students from North Monterey High and one from Stevenson emerged top three in the 7th annual Monterey County High School Japanese Speech contest:





1st Place: Ray Lantaca (North Salinas High School)
2nd Place: Alejandro Nunez (North Salinas High School)
3rd Place: Evelyn Zhai (Stevenson School)

About 250 guests took part in the March 22 event, which included visitors from Japan who spoke about their experiences with the 2011 Tsunami, Japanese language instructor Yo Azama said. There were 15 contestants from Alisal, Everett Alvarez, Stevenson School, and North Salinas High School.

The 1st place winner will compete at the National Speech Contest at UC Irvine in May. We can't wait to see how far he goes!