Senior Jack Grist won first place in the Downtown Macon Rotary speech contest and the Northern Zone Divisional competition.

Rotary Clubs hold annual speech contests for high school students. Contestants were required to write and present a 3- to 4-minute speech about Rotary Serving Humanity, the Rotary Four-Way Test, or the Rotary Foundation’s theme “Doing Good in the World.”

Jack chose the topic of Islamophobia and put it through the Four-Way Test. The test determines if a topic is the truth, is fair to all concerned, builds goodwill and better friendships, and is beneficial to all concerned. “I felt like it was a very relevant topic in the world today with lots of different arguments,” he said.

Jack was awarded a $1,000 scholarship for first place at the local level and $1,000 scholarship for winning the divisional level. He will attend the Rotary District Conference on March 25 at Jekyll Island.