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Two of the three orators will advance to the American Legion’s State Oratorical Contest Finals on March 23.

The Regina Coeli Council of the Knights of Columbus conducted the oratorical contest in the school’s auditorium at the end of January, providing content, judging, and scholarships. The Knights subsequently announced and distributed prizes to the winners at a school assembly in the Regina Coeli Council’s first annual Oratorical Contest on the U.S. Constitution.

The three students’ creative and effective presentations ranged from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln quotes to the historical context of the Magna Carta, King George and Machiavelli, and the complementary nature of various articles of the Constitution.

Champion Kathryn Murphy, who will soon be headed to the University of Pennsylvania, earned all three judges’ highest score for her speech on how and whether the U.S. Constitution does — or does not — preserve the sanctity of life. She concluded it does, and confidently proclaimed: “Just as history’s human rights activists went beyond the comfortable to change the Constitution for the protection of all human beings, so must we do now.”

As champion of the Knights of Columbus/Saints Peter and Paul High School Oratorical Contest, Kathryn received a $1,500 scholarship award from the Regina Coeli Council.

The Oratorical Contest at Saints Peter and Paul High School is modeled after the American Legion’s Oratorical Contest on the U.S. Constitution which is comprised of an 8- to 10-minute speech followed by a second round of a shorter oration on one of four Constitutional articles or amendments chosen at random by the contest organizers. The student-orators know the four articles of the Constitution in advance, but not which one will be assigned.

Two days after her Knights of Columbus triumph at the high school, Murphy won the American Legion Easton Post’s contest on Feb. 1, earning a $300 award. She subsequently won the American Legion District Championship in Centreville, earning an additional $500 (in the aggregate $2,300 and counting).

Murphy goes on to the American Legion Maryland state finals in Towson on March 23, with the winner going on to the American Legion national finals at Hillsdale College in Michigan, an all-expenses-paid trip for the state winners and their parents with the opportunity to win the $25,000 first prize.

Will Coughlan, the second-place finisher in the Knights of Columbus/Saints Peter and Paul High School Oratorical Contest, earned a $500 award. Only a sophomore, Coughlan showed great promise for the next two years’ oratorical contests. He finished second to Kathryn three times — at the high school and subsequently at the American Legion Post and District levels, earning a total of $1,300.

Conner Bryan, the third-place finisher at Saints Peter and Paul High School, earned a $200 award.

Bryan lives in Dorchester County, unlike Kathryn and Will, and therefore competed in American Legion Post and District contests in Cambridge and

Salisbury, winning both unopposed and totaling $1,200 in awards. Like Murphy, Bryan has advanced to the American Legion Maryland state finals in Towson on March 23 and to the significant opportunities available there.

Murphy and Bryan are two of only five student-orators competing at the American Legion’s Maryland state finals, so there statistically is a 40% chance a Saints Peter and Paul High School student will be the American Legion Maryland state champion.