The Theodore Roosevelt Association public-speaking contest, the oldest public-speaking contest open to students at New York City’s public high schools, celebrated its 80th anniversary yesterday at the former president’s birthplace, on East 20th Street in Manhattan.

Nine finalists selected through a rigorous semifinal competition presented their original speeches in a wood-paneled fourth-floor auditorium in front of a team of judges that included a “Tonight Show” contributing humorist and author, Mo Rocca; a columnist for The New York Sun, John P. Avlon, and board members of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, Linda Shookster and Cordelia Roosevelt.

The first-place winner of the annual award, which was first given five years after Roosevelt’s death, is awarded $5,000 in the form of prize money and a college scholarship from the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

This year’s winner was a student from Townsend Harris High School, Eleanor Fallon. Her speech was given from the perspective of Roosevelt’s wife, Edith, and commented on the process of painting the famous John Singer Sargent portrait of President Roosevelt, which hangs in the White House.

The second-place winner, Benjamin Cardozo High School student April Zhu, spoke about Theodore Roosevelt’s continued relevance in the age of the war on terror, both his call for courageous action and his rejection of the concept of “hyphenated Americans.” Her message took on special resonance because of Ms. Zhu’s enthusiastic delivery and personal story as an immigrant from China.

Third place went to a student from Queens Gateway to Health Sciences High School, April Ortega, whose speech concerned Roosevelt’s pioneering support for women’s rights and drew upon his often-overlooked 1880 Harvard College thesis calling for gender equality.

A combination of creativity, research, and memorization characterized the efforts of all the finalists. Other students spoke about different elements in Roosevelt’s life, such as the creation of the Panama Canal. One student, University Neighborhood High School’s Dante Batten, wrote a rhyming, rap-style oration as a vehicle for assessing Roosevelt’s life and work.

Each of the finalists received a medal emblazoned with the image of Theodore Roosevelt, which was presented by the president of the association, Norman Parsons; contest coordinator Dr. Michael Manson, and the new executive director of the association, the biographer Ed Renehan.

This marks Mr. Renehan’s first year as executive director following the death of the association’s longtime executive director, John Gable, in January.

Mr. Renehan expressed determination to help the public-speaking contest grow in coming years, saying: “This has been a program which has seen the best and the brightest of New York City’s public school students pass through it since 1925, but we’d like to increase participation even further by expanding this excellent competition to all New York City students in the future, whether in public, private, or parochial school.”