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Photo by Rebecca Straughmatt Mesa Legend |
Andrea Kuypers shows differences of the sea floor over the past 40 years as part of her debate during the “ Big Speak Out,” on Nov. 19.
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Student debaters ‘speak out’
Sean Dixon
Mesa Legend
Mesa Community College’s Communications Department held its seventh annual “Big Speak Out” on campus, Nov. 19.
Approximately 90 students competed in four different divisions: Informative Speaking, Persuasive Speaking, ESL Public Speaking (for students who speak English as their second language), and Performance of Literature.
Twenty-four judges comprised of faculty, staff, and administrators from MCC, and other community colleges evaluated the competitors, and the top five speakers in each division were given awards.
Faiza Seedat won first place in the Persuasive Speaking division, arguing in favor of Arizona adopting a graduated driver’s license program to regulate teenage drivers.
Spencer Hale, who won first place in Informative Speaking, shared with his audience important things to know when shopping for a baby carriage; Hale and his wife are expecting their first child in December.
Both Seedat and Hale are students in Carolyn Fay’s class. Fay, a member of the Speech Communications faculty said, “I think it’s hard for people to get up in front of a group and speak. Most people who start my public speaking class are really, really scared. One of the main things you need to do is to learn to control it. In other words, understand that it’s normal and then learn to deal with it. Today, the students were doing that; they were facing their fear.”
Most of the students had little or no experience speaking to groups outside of their communications courses. Erin Rawson, the Director of Speech Activities at MCC and the Big Speak Out’s organizer, believes that the event is an opportunity for students to speak outside of the comfort zone they may have established in their classes.
“Tournaments like this are also a good way to get students more interested in the communications field,” Rawson said. “Once they have the experience, some students realize they really want to do this more often and even become communication majors.”
The event simulated a two-round tournament, meaning that in each group the two judges worked independently and were not allowed to compare scores or discuss performances.
The students were divided into several groups, with each group judged by two judges in eight separate categories, primarily in content (introduction of the speech, organization, conclusion, supporting material, supporting resources, and creativity), and then delivery (eye contact, enthusiasm and voice).
Competitors were also judged both by the round they participated in and what level the judges believed that each competitor, as a community college student, should be performing at.
For Seedat, an Elementary Education major, and Hale, who plans to attend law school, the competition was a way to hone their speaking skills for their careers.
For students like Andrea Kuypers, the event was an opportunity to fine-tune her speaking talents. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. I was involved in speech and debate in high school.”
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