On December 2 The Honors Program hosted the Twelfth Annual Honors Public Speaking Contest in SCI 102. Dr. Neil Patten, Professor of Communications, organizes this event for the Honors Program on a yearly basis. Honors students enrolled in the 121 public speaking classes compete earlier in the evening in two rounds for the top four slots, speaking on compelling informative and persuasive issues of the day. One tradition of the contest, is to have “distinguished judges” on a panel to judge the top four speakers, which included Dr. John Scott Gray, Brooke Moore, Dr. Paul Blake and Professor Paul Zube. Aaron Zebolsky, the winner of last year’s event, served as emcee for the evening. After an informative and enjoyable evening, Connor Pilmore received First Place Recognition for his Persuasive speech on Running. Also receiving awards were Paige Kramer – “Climate Change”, Caitlyn Bailey, “Suicide Among Honor Students”, and Megan Polisuk-Balfour, “Rubik’s Cube”.

Caitlyn Bailey, Speech Contest – FSU SmugMug

Judges -Professor Brooke Moore, Dr. John Scott Gray, Dr. Paul Blake, Professor Paul Zube, and Honors Program Advisor Charlie Malone (Photo courtesy of FSU SmugMug)

Audience members (Photo courtesy of FSU SmugMug)

Speech Contest Audience Members (Photo courtesy of FSU SmugMug)

Speech Contest – Photo courtesy of FSU SmugMug

First Place Winner Connor Pilmore with 2013 Winner Aaron Zebolsky and Honors Program Director, Dr. Peter Bradley – Honors Speech Contest – Photo courtesy of FSU SmugMug

Top four finalists: Paige Kramer, Caitlyn Bailey, Connor Pilmore, Megan Polisuk-Balfour (Photo courtesy of FSU SmugMug)

All photos courtesy of Ferris State University SmugMug)