“Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will”, rightly said Suzy Kassem.
12 student delegates - Adwitiya Saxena, Sonakshi Pareek, Diva R Khanna, Ashmin Sidhu, Khwahish Parihar, Rashi Bafna, Jasmitha Pitti, Naavya Rathi, Lisha Kasat, Bhavi Jain, Priyal Jain, Hiya Dave along with Ms Nupur Goyal attended the 10th Edition of Le Concours de la Francophonie organized by Mayo College, Ajmer from 17th to 20th October 2023. It was a 4 day event with different category competitions taking place on different days. They reached the school on the 17th in the afternoon. After a fulfilling Rajasthani lunch, immediately they began preparing for the exhibition event taking place the same day. They spent the entire evening setting up their model presentation on the French speaking country, Canada. Simultaneously, participants were to also present a PPT presentation on the country that they had prepared prior.
On the second day, the team first witnessed the Poetry Recitation preliminary round, with which went parallel the Francophonie Quiz. After a short tea break, took place the Solo Song Juniors Preliminary round. Later an informative presentation on Mayo College was shown followed by the Mayo Film Festival screening with a simultaneous Spell Bee Competition for Juniors. At night, the Opening Ceremony in the Kangra Amphitheatre was conducted where students of the host school gave tremendous performances and Finals of Poetry Recitation and Solo Song Juniors took place.
On Thursday the 19th, the first event was the Solo Song Seniors preliminary round, followed by Declamation and later the Spell Bee Competition for Seniors. After lunch, the delegates were to be seated for the Reading Competition and then again the screening of rest of the films. After a refreshing tea session, they attended attend the Grand Evening, the finals for Solo Song Seniors and then screening of top-3 movies, after which finally came the most awaited part of the event, the Delegate Ball. Several hours of DJ and fun came to an end and began the final day.
The first activity for the day was the Treasure Hunt, which resulted in great teamwork amongst the mix-matched group of delegates from different teams. After a short snack break, the students departed for several workshops; like the French Cuisine workshop by Ms. Clemence from MCGS, Mayo’s History by Mr. Paul Loyrette, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics by Mr. Akash Rawat, Aero Modelling workshop by Mr. Ajay Sharma and Slam Poetry Workshop by Mr. Gaurav Soni. The delegates then headed for a school tour later followed by a thrilling Polo match. In the evening, the Closing Ceremony in the Kangra Amphitheatre, took place, with prize distribution for the French Fest and also the Opening Ceremony for the German Fest starting the following day headed towards the Director’s Manor to enjoy their last meal in the campus and bid their goodbyes to the other teams and our escorts. The following day, after a short trip to Pushkar, RKKians boarded the train for Jodhpur.
Although they didn’t win any award, this had been a great learning experience for all.
