Pierleoni Wins Senior Speech Competition

The+Senior+Speech+Competition+was+held+at+McQuaid+Jesuit+in+April.

The Senior Speech Competition was held at McQuaid Jesuit in April.

McQuaid Jesuit hosts an annual Senior Speech Competition for all students to view as we listen to our departing seniors’ thoughts, views, and opinions.

Throughout McQuaid’s existence, we have always been known as expressive, vivacious, thoughtful, and passionate young men; because of this, the Competition is always something forward to. Not only to listen to and better understand what subjects and topics our classmates care about, but in most cases to form our own opinions about these topics and subjects.

Each year, the McQuaid student community is the opposite of disappointed when we hear our peers’ serious, sad, and even wonky subjects. This year was no exception. We heard about subjects including gun control and even if we should dunk our Oreos in milk.

This year our contestants included Nico Pierleoni, Riley Gall, Alex Patterson, Steven Sercu, and Ryan Kozarits.  The competition was judged by Channel 13’s Don Alhart, Rochester Music Hall of Fame’s Ferdinand Smith, and our very own principal, Mr. Adam Baber.

But no speech was as gregarious and comical as Nico Pierleoni’s argument pertaining to “Sausage Fest.”  In fact, Pierleoni’s speech was so compelling that he was named Champion in front of a nearly full McQuaid Jesuit auditorium.

Sausage Fest was a tradition held by McQuaid seniors each year in which they orchestrate a community-wide festival while serving the rest of the community sausage-like foods, including but not limited to hot dogs, burgers, and sausages.

Nico stated that we as a school have a saying: “tradition never graduates.” He went on to say that in 2020, our tradition of Sausage Fest will graduate because the class of 2020 is the youngest class to experience Sausage fest.