Olympes de la parole

Competition Rules

The University Women’s Club of Montreal Inc. (UWCM) is proud to spearhead the first North American competition of Olympes de la Parole in Canada.

Les Olympes de la Parole is an academic competition open to secondary school girls. It uses a human rights approach to reflect on the central theme of gender equality. It raises awareness about the diverse prisms of inequalities between girls and boys, women and men. It offers participants an opportunity to join this global discussion and influence gender responsive policies.

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

The competition is open to secondary school girls from public and private sectors.

The following schools have accepted to participate in this first edition of the Olympes de la Parole:

  • The Sacred Heart School of Montreal,
  • The Study, and
  • Villa Maria College.

2017-2018 COMPETITION THEME

The emergence of communication technologies has transformed lifestyles, work organization, learning methods and skills needed to acquire and to apply knowledge.

Using information supported by evidence, you, secondary school students, will explain how access to new technologies could contribute to the empowerment of Indigenous girls and women in a particular region of Canada.

COMPETITION PROCESS

UWCM is committed to support participating schools by providing promotional materials as well as mentorship throughout the lifecycle of the competition, which is organized through a six-step process.

Step 1 – Enrollment

Schools who wish to participate in the 2018-2019 competition must complete the enrollment form and submit it to the UWCM no later than January 31st, 2018 (enrolment form). They will receive a confirmation of participation by February 28th, 2018.

Step 2 – Preparing for the competition

  • Participating schools will select their participants among Secondary 4 and 5 students, who will work as a team.
  • Each school will assign an instructor to lead the “Olympes.”
  • UWCM will nominate a mentor who will act as liaison between the School and the Club throughout the competition lifecycle.
  • The work done by the students will give evidence of personal and collective contribution in gaining a better understanding of the competition theme. Using critical thinking, participants will favour factual data from valid sources to analyze and objectively appraise the information. Their contribution may contribute as background knowledge required in the formulation of new policies that will support better access to education for Indigenous women and girls in Canada, thus promoting gender equality.

 Step 3 – Preliminary evaluation

  • Participants will send their results (a written report and a video clip) by email to the review panel.
  • Feedback from the panel will be used by participants to improve their results as they prepare for final evaluation.

Step 4 – Final evaluation

Participants will submit their final results to the the review panel, including:

  • A written report
  • An oral presentation
  • A video clip.

Step 5 – Announcement of winners

  • UWCM will send an email to each school advising them of the Review Panel decision.
  • Winners will officially be announced on International Women Day, March 8.
  • UWCM will send all schools an invitation to the Award Ceremony. Schools will be responsible for communicating this information to their students and their parents.

Step 6 – Award ceremony

  • The Award Ceremony will be held at the Atwater Club and will be open to all UWCM members and partners, personnel of participating schools, participating students and their families, media and political personalities.
  • Winners will present their project to the public.
  • All participants will be honoured with a certificate for volunteer hours invested in the competition.
  • Scholarships will be awarded to the top 3 results:

1st Prize                      $2,000.00

2nd Prize                     $1,500.00

3rd Prize                     $1,000.00

COMPETITION RULES

All participants must comply with the following:

A- Final results must be presented as:

  1. A written report of a maximum of 15 pages excluding bibliography, using APA format. The method used by the students to carry out the competition must be described in the report.
  2. An oral presentation not exceeding 15 minutes presented by a maximum of six students
  3. A video clip not exceeding three minutes

B-The written report, oral presentation and video clip must include:

  1. Name of the secondary school
  2. Theme of the competition
  3. Edition of the competition
  4. Name of participants
  5. Name of lead instructor
  6. Name of UWCM mentor

C- For the preliminary evaluation, an oral presentation will not be necessary. Results (written report and video clip) must be sent to the review panel by email. All schools will receive feedback from the review panel 72 hours after the preliminary evaluation.

D- For the final evaluation, the presentation to the review panel is done in the participants’ school.

  1. For the oral presentation, a maximum of six students will make the presentation for a maximum of 15 minutes. They must come prepared to answer questions from the review panel for five minutes following their presentation.
  2. For the video clip, participants will present a three-minute video clip. They must come prepared to answer questions from the review panel for five minutes following their presentation.
  3. The written report is handed in to the panel, dated and signed by all participants.

E- Documents submitted to the review panel will be posted on the UWCM Website.

F- Key dates for the 2017-2018 competition are:

  1. September 2017 to January 2018: Selected classes in participating schools prepare the competition
  2. January 2018: Preliminary Evaluation
  3. February 2018: Final Evaluation
  4. March 2018: Announcement of winners
  5. March 2018: Award Ceremony

EVALUATION

 Evaluation is based on four criteria:

I- Commitment to the competition process, mainly in critical thinking and collaborative work, as well as communication with mentors.

II- Quality of the written report (maximum 15 pages)

  1. Quality of the research done on the theme
  2. Depth of reflection on the competition theme
  3. Quality of the argument developed
  4. Rigour of work method
  5. Quality of written language
  6. Originality
  7. Innovation
  8. Quality of final report presentation (written report)

III- Quality of oral presentation (maximum 15 minutes)

  1. Clarity of content
  2. Quality of delivery
  3. Coherence with the competition theme
  4. Coherence between oral presentation and written report
  5. Capacity to answer question precisely and clearly
  6. Capacity to engage the audience
  7. Respect of time allocation.

IV-Quality of the video clip (maximum 3 minutes)

  1. Relevance to competition theme
  2. Quality of content (language, image, graphics)
  3. Technical aspects (sound, light, movement flow, images, camera movement, duration)

THE REVIEW PANEL

The purpose of the review panel is to evaluate the competition results and decide on the best three that are eligible for the scholarship.

The review panel’s decision will be by majority vote. This decision is irrevocable and is based on the full respect of evaluation criteria as well as evaluation rubrics that are communicated to participating schools prior to the competition.

The review panel is composed of:

  • UWCM President
  • UWCM Vice President
  • UWCM members with extensive experience in academia
  • A social media specialist
  • External examiners from constituencies advocating for women’s rights and Indigenous education.

For more questions regarding the Olympes de la Parole Competition, please contact:

Dr. Saôde Savary, UWCM president
3529 Atwater Avenue, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3H 1Y2
Email: saodesavary.uwcm@gmail.com
Phone: 514-934-1362