Young minds make a mark

SchoolTime

Inter-school carnival Cicero 2013 had a wide range of competitions to enthuse students.A Roman statesman and orator, Cicero (106-43 BC), who is remembered for his mastery of Latin prose became the inspiration of youngsters at IIPM’s recently concluded Inter-School Carnival ‘Cicero’s 2013’.

The seventh edition of this school festival, Cicero’s Carnival 2013 represents the idea of integration and empowerment of youth in a competitive and highly dynamic environment aiming to combine intellect with fun.

Keeping this in mind, the competitions at Cicero ranged from debates to treasure hunts and personality presentation to choreography over two days. This range of competitive events saw a participation of around 2500 students from over 50 schools of Delhi and NCR.

The competition was tough since the participating schools included Modern School Barakhamba Road, Amity International School Gurgaon, DPS, Salwan Public School, Mont Fort School, New Green Field Saket and Manav Rachna School Gurgaon among others.

Cicero’s flagship event ‘Cicero’s Challenge - Debate Competition’ remained the highlight and drew some of the brightest young minds from India for an intellectually rich round of debating. The pertinent topic was, ‘We as a society believe in adjusting & compromising, not speaking up’. Std XII student, Siddhant Bajaj from Modern School, Barakhamba Road, competed against the radical styles of different presenters to bag the first prize of One lakh! After the results were announced, an elated Siddhant said, “The competition was stiff and few participants had amazing content while few others had a fresh approach.

Last year a student of my school had won the third prize of Rs 25,000 which I thought was decent but had no clue that I would win the first prize this time.” His interjections about the perennial pot holes on roads and rising inflation coupled with high taxes borne by the common man, helped him win the prize.

Some of the other competitions held during the carnival were: collage making (won by Amity International School Gurgaon Sec 4), creative writing (won by Modern School, Barakhamba Road), T-shirt painting (won by New Green Field, Saket), dumb charades, personality contest (won by Devang from Mont Fort School and Snehal from Modern School, Barakhamba Road), Ad-Mad (ad making) and the ever famous treasure hunt (won by DAV Public School Shreshta Vihar).

But one of Cicero’s most interesting and intellectual events ‘Ad Mad’ needs a special mention for it drew some of the most creative ideas from young minds. The contestants were required to create an alternative logo and a radio jingle for ‘Full Time’. The one to create the best logo and jingle bagged the title of ‘Best Marketer.’ This was a team from Salwan Public School, Gurgaon.

On the whole, this event provided the students a perfect time to enjoy themselves, just ahead of their summer vacations.