Education | UM student grabs top title in English speaking contest

UM student Lisandra Wagan

A student from the University of Macau (UM), Lisandra Wagan Fesalbon, has outperformed other 100 thousand contestants in the “21st Century Coca-Cola Cup” National English Speaking Competition, taking home the championship prize. The contest was attended by talented English speakers from across China.
It was the first time since the national speaking competition’s first edition in 1996 that a local student has snatched the top title. This year, the annual competition was held at Henan University. The student, from the UM’s Department of Government and Public Administration and also a member of UM’s Public Speaking Team, charmed the panel of judges with her charisma and eloquence onstage in the grand final of the nationwide competition, defeating 64 other finalists from among the staggering 100 thousand rivals who participated from the contest’s first stage.
Her success came a month after another English competition, a speech contest under the Asian English Olympics 2015 held in mid-February where she, alongside other two fellow team members, made their way into its quarterfinal.
According to a press release from the university, the champion thanked her coach, Randall Tran, for his instruction and training along the way. “I’m really happy to win the championship, and I’m very grateful to my coach Randall Tran for his coaching,” says Fesalbon. “Without his training, I wouldn’t have been able to beat so many strong contestants from around the country.”
The topics for this year’s semi-final and national grand final of the speaking contest were “Seeing Is Not Believing” and “On the Balance between Yin and Yang from a Young Person’s Perspective.”