The Santa Clarita Valley Bar Association recognized three Hart district students during its Scholars and Bench Night, a special dinner event attended by Superior Court judges and other high-ranking law officials.
Following a cocktail dinner Thursday, Sebastian Cazares, Joanna Veres and Shani Tyson, the winners of last month’s sixth annual High School Speech competition, presented their winning speeches to the Bar Association’s general membership, audience members and five judges from the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Scholars and Bench Night is a follow-up event to a competition where ten students in the William S. Hart Union High School District presented four-minute speeches, which were judged by a scoring panel comprised of judges from the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
At Thursday’s dinner, students were presented cash scholarships before featured speaker David Gelfound, the supervising judge of the North Valley District, presented a “view from the Bench.”
During his speech, Gelfound addressed the current state and future of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The Bar Association said they will seek to continue its speech competition next spring. Junior and senior class students are encouraged to reach out to the SCV Bar Association for more information.