The winners of the Hamilton College 2006 public speaking contest were announced after the final round of the contest on March 4. Preliminaries were held on Feb. 11 as students competed for three separate prizes: The McKinney Prize, The Clark Prize and The Warren Wright Prize. Between the preliminary and final rounds, speakers had the option of working with "speech coach" Jim Helmer, co-director of the Oral Communication Center, who was also a judge in the preliminary round. Seventeen students competed in the final round.
The McKinney Prize was established in 1878 by Charles McKinney, who signed an agreement allowing Hamilton to claim a portion of his estate for the purpose of establishing the McKinney public speaking prizes. His intent was to have the prizes "stimulate the undergraduates of said College to diligence and proficiency in that department [oratory]." The McKinney Prize is awarded to one student from each class for a 5-8 minute persuasive speech that has relevance and interest for a Hamilton College audience. This year's winners are, from the class of 2009, Stuart Lombardi; class of 2008, Britt Freitag; class of 2007, Michael Blasie; and class of 2006, Jonathan Kuhl.
The winner of the Clark Prize is Matthew Colman '06. The Clark Prize was originally established through a gift from Aaron Clark in 1859 and later reestablished in 1892 through a gift from the Fayerweather estate. It is open to the students in the senior class in all disciplines. The Clark competition includes both an essay and a speech on an assigned topic. This year's topic was created in one of "speech coach" Jim Helmer's Oral Communication classes as a group project. The topic was, "Hamilton: The Second Time Around: If you were entering Hamilton today as a first-year student, knowing what you know today, what new perspectives might you bring?"
This year's winner of the Warren Wright Prize is Alicia Giglio '06. The Warren Wright Prize was established in honor of Warren E. Wright, the Upson Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Hamilton from 1977 to 1993. The Wright Prize is awarded to a student who has taken or is currently taking one of two courses in public speaking in the Department of Communication for a six to eight minute informative speech on a socially significant issue of current interest.
Visiting Professor of Communications John Adams was very impressed with this year's competition. "A lot of credit should go to a lot of people for making the event a success with their input, suggestions, and time commitments—not the least of which are the students--all of them who competed--win or lose. Anyway, the contestants are a really great collection of students who publicly exemplify a key intention of the liberal arts education that Hamilton College provides," Adams noted.
Professor of Communication Catherine Phelan said "The Department of Communication is indebted to those individuals who served as judges for the 2006 competition. For the final round, Mark Cryer, Jenny Irons, Phil Klinkner, Lisa Magnarelli, Susan Skerritt and Eleanor Wertimer are to be thanked for their commitment and service." Preliminary judges included Susan Mason, Robert DelBuono, John Adams and Catherine W. Phelan.
The number of participants in the competition has increased steadily in the last six years and we look forward to excellent speeches next year," Phelan added.
-- by Mike Kennett
