Under the motto “Poets are born, speakers become” the XVII International Contest "Cicero-2017" took place at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (Minsk), where 49 cadets and students from 22 higher educational institutions took part. Besides the speakers from Belarus - Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Brest, Mogilev and Ukraine - Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, the first place was competed by representatives of Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, China, Nigeria, Turkmenistan. The general theme of the contest was – “Events, People and Their Affairs”, devoted to the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian militia.

Only 12 of the best contestants who scored the highest amount of points were able to go to the second round, where they competed in the art of verbal improvisation and demonstrated the knowledge of the elements of the culture of speech, as well as the ability to discuss and answer the questions of impromptu. On the second day there was a ceremony of awarding winners and a festive concert.

Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs was represented by a team of winners of the universal University oratory contest, among them - cadet of the 3d course of the Faculty No. 2 Oksana Koliada and the 1st year cadet of the Faculty No. 1 Vitalii Naida.

  The overall first place by the results of two rounds was won by the cadet of the 3d course of the Faculty No. 2, private of police Oksana Koliada, who devoted her speech to a close friend of her father, who heroically died during the anti-terrorist operation. Oksana was able to win a special favor among the audience and members of the jury because she had read her own poem and the only one in the history of the contest made her report in Ukrainian.