Ottawa, June 4, 2020 — More than 950 youth across Canada shared their experience with social distancing, living in quarantine, and the COVID-19 pandemic in the Canadian Parents for French Concours virtuel : Ensemble à distance – ‘ton expérience face au virus’ (your experience with the virus) contest. Students submitted a short video of one to three minutes, showing how their lives changed with physical distancing measures: from remote learning, to developing new hobbies, countering frustrations and other reflections or lessons learned.

Each year CPF organizes Concours d’art oratoire, a youth public speaking competition that offers French second language students the opportunity to showcase their speaking and presentation abilities. Competitions are run at the school, provincial/territorial and national level. This year, due to the breakout of the pandemic, the traditional competitions had to be cancelled. The virtual contest was met with great response by participants and their parents as it gave students an opportunity to use video to share and express their feelings.

“While the pandemic impacted completion of our traditional competition, we are thrilled with the response we received for Concours virtuel which showcased students’ French speaking skills in a more natural and informal manner. We received entries from all across the country, from Victoria to Iqaluit to St-John’s. Students put their French into practice, displayed great creativity as well as insights into the situation,” said Nicole Thibault, Executive Director for CPF National.

Congratulations to the 66 cash prize winners from Grade 6 to 12 in the core French, French immersion and Francophone categories, sharing in prizes totalling more than $10,000. Additionally, almost $13,000 has been committed to Food Banks Canada as a donation on behalf of entries of K-Grade 5 students.

A special thank you is extended to the CPF BC-YK Branch for their leadership with this impactful initiative in partnership with the Francophone Youth Council of British Columbia and to the 67 volunteer judges who helped make the difficult choices in selecting the winning videos.

Congratulations to all students for participating, and to parents, judges and teachers for supporting the contest in its new format. This support is instrumental in promoting French second language learning and bilingualism in Canada. To watch the winners’ videos visit the CPF BC-YK website, https://bc-yk.cpf.ca/concoursvirtuel/.

The winners of the 2020 CPF Concours virtuel are:

Core French

Grades 6/7

First Place: Xuanshi (Amy) Ren (British Columbia)

Second Place: Claire Anglesey (Ontario)

Third Place: Sofia Lebovics (Ontario)

Grades 8/9

First Place: Steven Luo (Ontario)

Second Place: Margaret Kuts (British Columbia)

Third Place: Alexander Bogdanoski (Ontario)


Grade 10

First Place: Emily Kruk (Manitoba)

Second Place: Rhea Gupta (Manitoba)

Third Place: Dominique Vega (British Columbia)


Grades 11/12

First Place: Maika Houde (British Columbia)

Second Place: Kyle Palacios (British Columbia)

Third Place: James Shi (Alberta)


French immersion

Grade 6

A

First Place: Sohum Kapoor (Ontario)

Second Place: Dhaya Sudhakar (British Columbia)

Third Place: Audrey Veinot (Nova Scotia)

B
First Place: Emily Jiang (Manitoba)

Second Place: Ariana Beaton (British Columbia)

Third Place: Alina Krasnoperova (British Columbia)

C

First Place: Maria Baraban (Manitoba)

Second Place: Morgan Patel (British Columbia)

Third Place: Mira Lazorek (Alberta)

 

Grade 7

A

First Place: Talib Ahmad (British Columbia)

Second Place: Rachel Arellano (Alberta)

Third Place: Catherine McCurrach (British Columbia)

 

B

First Place: Melody Mokhtari (British Columbia)

Second Place: James Harkness (Ontario)

Third Place: Kaila Kremski (Manitoba)

Grade 8
A

First Place: Ayaan Jeraj   (British Columbia)

Second Place: Emma Anzarut (British Columbia)

Third Place: Siddhanth Nittala (Ontario)

 

B

First Place: Yasmin Mehrpooya (Nova Scotia)

Second Place: Xavier Wallace (British Columbia)

Third Place: Sappho Thompson (Nova Scotia)

 

Grade 9

A

First Place: Juliana Kudinda (British Columbia)

Second Place: Alexandria Beer (Ontario)

Third Place: Kaylee Lantz (Ontario)

 

B

First Place: Alexis Cloet (British Columbia)

Second Place: Adriana Power (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Third Place: Ashbani Kaur (Ontario)

Grade 10

A

First Place: Monika Arcadi (British Columbia)

Second Place: Emma Liagridonis (Ontario)

Third Place: Anastasiya Ishchook (Manitoba)

 

B

First Place: Rachael Moores (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Second Place: Alice Lee (British Columbia)

Third Place: Emma Lucas (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Grade 11

A

First Place Mihai Covaser (British Columbia)

Second Place: Carmen Golnaraghi (British Columbia)

Third Place: Marina Kim (British Columbia)

B

First Place: Julia Sharobim (Ontario)

Second Place: Yusha Dulkina (Ontario)

Third Place: Simone Saini (British Columbia)

Grade 12

A

First Place: Lili (Myo Jin) Kim (British Columbia)

Second Place: William Barbour (Ontario)

Third Place: James Jiang (British Columbia)

B

First Place: Luka Roberts (British Columbia)

Second Place: Michael Salib (Ontario)

Third Place: Elisa Ghannai (Ontario)

Francophone

Grades 6/7

First Place:  SophieJaxa Debicka (Manitoba)

Second Place: Lila Seroussi (British Columbia)

Third Place: Sophie Gallant (Prince Edward Island)

Grades 8/9/10

First Place: Juliette Seroussi (British Columbia)

Second Place: Chloe Zhu (British Columbia)

Third Place: Océanne Kahanyshyn-Fontaine (Alberta)

Grades 11/12

First Place:  Aina Rabesoa (British Columbia)

Second Place: Elise Therrien (British Columbia)

Third Place: Nicole Haim (Ontario)

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Canadian Parents for French is a nationwide, research-informed, volunteer organization that represents 25,000 members across Canada and champions the opportunity to learn and use French for all those who call Canada home.

For more information, please contact:

Marcos Salaiza, National Coordinator, Project Communications and Government Relations

Tel: 613.235.1481 x222

Email: msalaiza@cpf.ca