Dominique Ruedaflores with Theresa Amador and Jason Dhing

February 18th the Monterey Park Lions held their annual speech competition at Lions Manor in Monterey Park. The topic for this year was “Homelessness in California; What is the Solution?” Three contestants competed in the competition – two from San Gabriel High School and one from Ramona Convent Secondary School in Alhambra. The contestants from San Gabriel High were Ivy Luu and Cindy Tran. Both are in the 11th grade. Their debate coach was Jessica Wilkerson.

The contestant from Ramona Convent Secondary School was 10th grader Dominique Ruedaflores. Her volunteer coach was Gloria Ing. Dominique Ruedaflores won the competition. She will be competing in the Lions Zone competition on Saturday, March 14th from 2:30-4:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel, 888 Montebello Blvd., Rosemead.

In 2018, Ruedaflores won a total of $17,500 in college scholarships from the Optimist International Oratory Contest, which had a theme of “Where Are My Roots of
Optimism”? In 2017 she won first place at the California’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) section and state competitions in the Introduction to Public Speaking competition category.