Record-breaking eight Surrey & White Rock students win medals at BC French-speaking competition

May 16, 2025

Surrey and White Rock had an outstanding showing at this year’s B.C. and Yukon Concours d’art oratoire, taking home eight medals in the annual provincial French-speaking competition to set a new district record.

While last year marked the first time since 2014 that five Surrey students won medals at the Concours d’art oratoire, this year’s Grade 6 to 12 students shattered the district’s previous best, with two first place finishes, three second place and three third place across numerous categories.

Semiahmoo Secondary's Mireia Cuenca was one of eight medallists from Surrey Schools in this year's Concours d'art oratoire provincial French-speaking competition.

Semiahmoo Secondary student and three-time Concours medallist Mireia Cuenca topped the podium once again, finishing first in the Early Immersion 11 category. Fraser Wood Elementary student Emily Shi also finished first in the Core/Intensive French 6/7 category, with Arabella Reece Carpio of Frost Road Elementary placing third in the same category.

Semiahmoo Secondary’s Clary Chow, École Panorama Ridge Secondary’s Shareena Kaushal and École Peace Arch Elementary’s Rafa Ramadan took home silver medals in Core French 11/12, Core French 9/10 and Early Immersion 7, respectively. Hana Diaz of École Peace Elementary took third in the Early Immersion 6 category while Landon Chrismas of École Martha Currie Elementary took third in the Francophone 6 category.

Hosted by Canadian Parents for French (CPF), the 42^nd annual competition took place May 3 at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus and saw nearly 200 students from across B.C. and the Yukon participate. The Concours d’art oratoire was created to encourage and support bilingualism in Canada while providing French-speaking students with an event and a community of active French language learners. The competition also aims to demonstrate the relevance of French language instruction in the real world.

Surrey Schools has an extensive history of Concours winners:

2024 – Concours d’art oratoire (national): Dhruv Mehta
2024 – Concours d’art oratoire (provincial): Mireia Cuenca, Aashita Goyal, Dhruv Mehta, Jathu Nanthakumar, Chaarvi Sivansankar
2023 – Concours d’art oratoire (national): Dhruv Mehta
2023 – Concours d’art oratoire (provincial): Mireia Cuenca and Dhruv Mehta
2021 – Concours Virtuel (national): Mireia Cuenca and Simone Sinai
2020 – Concours Virtuel (national): Luka Roberts
2019 – Concours d’art oratoire (provincial): Kaitlyn Lu and Ben Tyler
2018 – Concours d’art oratoire (provincial): Olivia Podhajska, Paige Metcalf, Ben Tyler and Coralie Tcheune
2017 – Concours d’art oratoire (national): Coralie Tcheune
2015 – Concours d’art oratoire (provincial): Julia Albert and Kyle Boutilier
2014 – Concours d’art oratoire (provincial): Julia Albert, Haley Biggin, Jazlyn Melnychuk, Shailee Shah and Coralie Tcheune

Prizes for this year's provincial competition range from $50 to $300, based on grade level and placement in the top three of categories.

To see the other winners and learn more about the CPF and the Concours d'art oratoire, click here.