Six prizes were awarded in three categories in the annual Public Speaking Competition on Saturday, March 8, in the Chapel. The finalists were chosen after an open preliminary round held in February. Speakers’ presentations were either persuasive or informative in nature, and in one category students were asked to address an assigned topic.
In the McKinney Prize competition, a prize is awarded to one student from each class for a 5-8 minute persuasive speech that is socially relevant and of interest to the extended Hamilton College community.
The 2014 McKinney Prize recipients and their topics are:
Class of 2014: Madison Kircher, “A Novel Idea: Literary Fiction and Social Perceptiveness”
Class of 2015: Catherine Cooper, “A Battle of the Best”
Class of 2016: Porshai Rivera, “Take a Chance on a Thug”
Class of 2017: Hady Hewidy, “All Are Terrorized”
The Clark Prize competition is open to all members of the senior class and calls for participants to address an assigned topic through both written and oral presentations. The 2014 Clark Prize recipient is also Madison Kircher whose presentation was titled “Not a Drop to Drink: Coca-Cola and the Fight for Water in India.”
The final prize category, the Warren Wright Prize in informative speaking, is open to those students who have enrolled in the college’s public speaking course. Participants also respond to questions from the audience, and their responses are included in the judges’ evaluations. The Warren Wright Prize recipient is William Schoder ’14 who spoke on “Lasting Debates about Youth in American Gay Rights.”
Prizes will be awarded to all winners on Class and Charter Day.
The Public Speaking Competition was organized by the Oral Communication Center.
