UWCM Olympes de la Parole Competition

Rules for the 2018-19 Competition

The University Women’s Club of Montreal Inc. (UWCM) is proud to spearhead the second edition of the North American school competition Les 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
  • Kanawhakee Survival School
  • Villa Sainte Marcelline
  • Collège International Marie de France

This year competition is done in collaboration with Stella Musica, giving participants an additional opportunity to practice public debate by joining a round table discussion during the Stella Musica annual festival.

2018-2019 COMPETITION THEME

Feminization of poverty persists and remains an impediment to the empowerment of women and girls, for, according to UN sources, the number of people living in multidimensional poverty has reached 1.6 billion.

«As the world is getting ready to commemorate in 2019 the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child you, High School student, will analyze the impact of poverty on the empowerment of women and the development of girls. You will use evidence to explain how access to education can help eradicate a specific dimension of poverty you have chosen to study»..

COMPETITION PROCESS

UWCM is committed to support participating schools by providing promotional materials as well as support 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. They will receive a confirmation of participation within 1 month.

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 liaise with the school throughout the competition lifecycle.
  • Participants will submit to their instructor, for approval, the subjects they have selected in relation with the competition theme, as well as the working method they will be using in order to carry out the project.
  • Using critical thinking, participants will favour factual data from valid sources to analyze and objectively appraise the information.

 Step 3 – Preliminary evaluation

  • The work done by the students will give evidence of personal and collective contribution in gaining a better understanding of the competition theme.
  • 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 final results.

Step 4 – Final evaluation

Participants will present their final results to the review panel.

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

Their contribution may be used to increase knowledge used in the formulation of new policies that will eradication of poverty through access to education for girls and women in Canada, thus promoting their empowerment.

Step 5 – Announcement of winners

  • Each school will be informed about the review panel decision
  • Winners will officially be announced through press release
  • UWCM will send all schools an invitation to the awards ceremony.
  • Schools will be responsible for communicating this information to their students and their parents.

Step 6 – Award ceremony

  • The 2019 Award Ceremony will be open to all UWCM members, UWCM 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 best three 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 rules:

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

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 Olympes de la Parole Webpage.

EVALUATION

 Evaluation is based on four criteria:

I- Commitment to the competition process (10 Points)

  1. Team work (contribution of each member of the team)
  2. Critical thinking
  3. Communication with UWCM during the course of the competition.

II- Quality of the written report (40 Points)

  1. Report structure
  2. Quality of the literature search done on the theme
  3. Right use of literature search findings
  4. Verbal or written communication with informants
  5. Rigour of work method
  6. Quality of information source
  7. Depth of reflection on the competition theme
  8. Quality of the argument developed
  9. Quality of written language
  10. Originality/Innovation
  11. Quality of final report presentation (APA style, number of pages, table of content,
    references pages, etc.).

III- Quality of oral presentation (25 Points)

  1. Clarity of content
  2. Quality of delivery
  3. Coherence among the different sections of the presentation
  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 (25 Points)

  1. Relevance to competition theme
  2. Concise illustration of observations/results
  3. Quality of content (effective language, effective titles and transition image/graphics
    related to content, logical sequence of ideas, proposes solution/actions, etc.)
  4. Technical aspects (sound, light, movement flow, images, camera movements, respect of time allowed)

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 members with extensive experience in academia
  • CFUW representative
  • A social media specialist
  • External examiners from constituencies advocating for girls and women’s rights in
    Canada

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

Dr. Saôde Savary, UWCM President, Ph. D. Public Health
3529 Atwater Avenue, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3H 1Y2
Email: saodesavary.uwcm@gmail.com