Five students were honored following the College's traditional public speaking competition March 6, addressing topics ranging from the liberal arts to Facebook.
Winners of the McKinney Prizes were Trang Nguyen '13, whose speech was titled "You're Beautiful"; Xiaohan Du '12, on "A Call for the Revival of Humanism in Liberal Arts Education: When the Diversity of Ideas Meets the Idea of Diversity"; Ian Doran '11, who spoke on "What's One More Test? Encouraging STI Testing at Hamilton College"; and Yan Kit Pang '10, on "Dance Education for Youth at Risk." McKinney speeches must be persuasive, with arguments supported by factual information. Topics must be socially relevant and of interest to the extended Hamilton community. Charles McKinney signed an agreement in 1878 that allowed Hamilton to claim a portion of his estate for the purpose of establishing these prizes, one of which is awarded to each class.
Yan Kit Pang was also the recipient of the Clark Prize. His speech was titled "Facebook: Enough Already!" in response to this year's topic, "Facebook: How Much Information is too Much?" The prize, which is open to all seniors on an assigned topic, was first established through a gift from Aaron Clark in 1859 and re-established in 1892 through a gift from the Fayerweather estate.
Amanda Bowman '10 was awarded the Warren E. Wright Prize for her speech, "Iowa: The Gay Mecca?" Wright competition speeches must be informative (rather than persuasive) speeches on socially significant issues of current interest. The prize was established in honor of Warren E. Wright, the Upson Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Hamilton from 1977 to 1993.
Judges for the competition included trustees, alumni, Hamilton faculty members, administrators and staff as well as representatives from other colleges.
