NEWS RELEASE

(Chandler/Sun Lakes, AZ | May 2025) The Rotary Club of Sun Lakes (RCSL) held its 11th Annual Rotary International Four-Way Test Speech Contest. Five senior students from five different Chandler Unified School District High Schools competed.
 
The purpose of the speech is to apply the principles of RI’s Four Way Test to a current ethical issue. Each student addressed the Four-Way Test during her 4–7-minute speech. The Four Way Test addresses: Is it the TRUTH?; Is it FAIR to all concerned?; Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?; and, Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?.
 
RCSL Education Chair Gary Kay welcomed students and their supporters to the April 2025 event. He thanked the competition judges — CUSD Administration Leaders Dr. Craig Gilbert (Pre-K-12 Associate Superintendent), Frank Narducci (CUSD Superintendent), Leo Schlueter (Elementary West Region—Executive Director), Dr. Mike De La Torre (K-12 Assistant Superintendent) and Dan Serrano (Secondary Education Executive Director).
 
Club members Bill Schink and Debbie Bailey served as competition tabulators, along with former event chair Bill McCoach. The event is one of the Rotary Club of Sun Lakes’s premiere and long-standing education programs.
 
Placement of awards and their topics:
·        1st Place ($500) - Ojal Parimisetty of Basha High School with topic: generational empathy.
·        2nd Place ($250) – Addison Balthazor of Perry High School with topic: climate change
Runner- ups awards ($100 each) went to:
  • Lillianna Cabanillas, of Casteel High School with topic: workplace discrimination
  •  Kavya Mishra, Arizona College Preparatory High School with topic: recipe for happiness.
  • Olivia Dlott, Chandler High School with topic:  Gun Violence
Rotary members improve lives and bring positive, lasting change to communities around the world by promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water and sanitation, supporting education, saving mothers and children, growing local economies and protecting the environment. Rotary’s top priority is the global eradication of polio. Rotary launched its polio immunization program, PolioPlus, in 1985, and in 1988 became a leading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
 
About Rotary
Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.4 million members of more than 46,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. For more information, visit Rotary.org.
 
For more information about Rotary in Arizona, visit the District 5495 website. For information on joining a local Rotary Club, email membership@rotary5495.org.
 
CONTACT:
 
Dr. Honora Norton, RCSL Public Image Director, mike.honora@cox.net
 
Peter Meade, President, Rotary Club of Sun Lakes, azpetermeade@gmail.com
 
 
 
Judges for the speech contest were, from left, Dr. Craig Gilbert (Pre-K-12 Associate Superintendent), Frank Narducci (CUSD Superintendent), Leo Schlueter (Elementary West Region—Executive Director), Dr. Mike De La Torre (K-12 Assistant Superintendent) and Dan Serrano (Secondary Education Executive Director).

 
 
RCSL Education Chair Gary Kay congratulates the students contests, from left, Ojal Parimisetty, Addison Balthazor, Lillianna Cabanillas, Kavya Mishra and Olivia Dlott.