SLU’s First Public Speaking Contest

St. Lawrence University will hold a public speaking contest on Nov. 30, giving students the opportunity to showcase their verbal communication skills and a chance at cash prizes. The registration is open for the first 40 students who enter to compete until Nov. 15. Participants will be crafting speeches from any class on any topic, which will be 4 to 10 minutes in length and may be delivered from brief notes.   

Expert judges will select finalists from the preliminary rounds at 5:00 p.m. to continue to the final round, which begins at 7:00 p.m. in Hepburn Hall 128. Students and faculty are welcomed and encouraged to come support competitors in the final round. Each audience member will vote for their favorite speaker.   

Thanks to the Maurer Family Foundation, four finalists will be awarded generous cash prizes at the public speaking contest. Judges will award $300 to first place and $100 to second place; the audience choice winner will be awarded $300, and $100 will go to the audience choice runner-up.   

Professor Ashely Rife is directing the contest. It is SLU’s first public speaking contest outside of the Joan Donovan speaking contest, the event that determines the senior student who addresses their peers at commencement. Ashley Rife’s partner, Tyler Rife, will be a judge for the contest. The two have worked on similar events at other institutions in years past and are excited to see public speaking being celebrated at SLU. “Because it’s this competitive atmosphere and because it’s not in the classroom, they get to really test out the ideas in front of live audiences, which is, I think, a really exciting opportunity,” said Tyler Rife.   

Ashley Rife was inspired to bring this event to SLU to give students the chance to showcase their public speaking abilities and share the amazing work they are doing in their classes. She hopes to see a large variety of topics, performance styles, and speaking styles. “My hope is that we really can demonstrate that communication is a skill that spans all of the disciplines, by seeing that represented in the types of speeches,” Ashley Rife said.   

Professor Allison Rowland is the director of the Collaborative Communication Initiative, the grant received from the Maurer Family Foundation, which makes this contest possible. Additionally, Rowland will be a judge on the expert panel. As a public speaking teacher, she advises speakers to make audience-oriented decisions and speak about a topic they find interesting. “People who bring a lot of energy, people who just seem really present with the audience, and who can tell a good story — those are the kind of presentations I tend to really enjoy,” said Rowland.   

Rowland encourages students to get out of their comfort zone and use the contest as an opportunity to practice one of SLU’s learning goals: having communication skills. “Every St. Lawrence student is supposed to master these 10 learning goals no matter what you major or minor in, and communication is listed in three or four different goals, so it’s a crucial skill,” Rowland said. “It doesn’t matter how much you know about your major if you can’t communicate effectively about what you know,” Rowland continued. She hopes that the contest brings interest and attention to the benefits of a Performance and Communication Arts major or minor.  

Professor Randy Hill will round out the panel of expert judges. Hill is eager to see how each panel member will examine different aspects of public speaking. He hopes this event will inspire students to create similar events and clubs in the future. “If we can get an improv group and a sort of speech club and keep it, that would be ideal,” said Hill.  

Senior and PCA student Michael Fionda ’24will be the emcee for the event. He is looking forward to students coming together to support each other through the art of public speaking. He believes students should attend the event to learn about new topics and experience the value of different perspectives. “I feel like this event is going to have a huge impact for not only the people who are taking part, but the people who are in the audience,” Fionda said. He hopes that seeing students speaking passionately about their area of study will inspire and help students who are undecided in their major or looking to explore different topics. “That’s why I’m really excited for it, you never know what it could do, it could change someone’s life.”