Evangel University’s Forensics team members were recognized with 20 awards at the 2018 Public Communication Speech & Debate League (PCSDL) national tournament April 7-8.
The awards included two individual first-place awards earned by Cecilia Corbin, a freshman psychology major from Branson, Mo., as well as second place in all three sweepstakes categories.
Corbin took first place in Interviewing, a competition designed to give students the opportunity to sharpen their questioning, job interviewing and resume writing skills. She also took first place in Slam Poetry, where contestants presented three original poetry compositions spread across three rounds.
Changing the face of Speech & Debate
“As part of our vision for the tournament, we change out events every year,” said Brian Swafford, PCSDL president and tournament director.
“Part of the reason to change events is so that we avoid becoming overly formulaic in how events are done. When events are new to judges and competitors, we get more innovation and creativity, which is fun,” he said.
Swafford serves as director of forensics at Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, Mo., which hosted the tournament. Teams from as far away as West Virginia competed.
“We have several students in their first year of collegiate forensics; some are even new to the program this semester,” said Dr. Mark B. Kelton, forensics coach and professor of communication at Evangel University.
“This tournament was a great first-tournament experience, since it evens the playing field with events that are new to most everyone. I am proud of our students,” said Kelton.
Sweepstakes Awards
1) Debate Sweepstakes (total points earned in debate events) — Second Place: Evangel University
2) Speech Sweepstakes (Division II) (total points earned in speech events) — Second Place: Evangel University
3) Combined Sweepstakes (Overall School) (total points in both debate and speech events) — Second Place: Evangel University
Individual student placement
Competing in 11 tournament events, the 12 Evangel students were recognized with the following awards:
1) Audition Monologue
- Second: Hannah Sowers
- Fourth: Joella Abarientos
- Sixth: Annalise Williams
2) Duo Improvisation
- Fourth: Elaine Hines / Quentin Little
- Finalists: Kimmy Aziz / Joella Abarientos
3) Great Speeches — Students present a speech from a speaker after the 1980s that addresses racial tensions in the United States.
- Second: Annalise Williams
4) Interviewing — Interviewing is designed to give students the opportunity to sharpen their questioning, job interviewing and resume writing skills. The event consisted of two rounds of interviews and a third round where students’ resumes were evaluated.
- First: Cecilia Corbin
- Second: Jordan Page
5) Pecha Kucha — A “Pecha Kucha,” or 20×20 presentation, contains 20 slides, with each slide shown for 20 seconds, for a presentation of exactly 6 minutes, 40 seconds.
- Third: Elaine Hines
6) Public Narrative — A narrative speech is designed to inspire audience belief or action through the sharing of a student’s personal experience.
- Sixth: Garrett Bills
7) Radio Broadcasting
- Third: Elizabeth Fry
8) Research Paper — Contestants submitted an original scholarly paper suitable for presentation at an academic conference.
- Third: Elizabeth Fry
- Fourth: Emily Walton
- Fifth: Jordan Page
9) Slam Poetry — Contestants presented three original poetry compositions spread across three rounds.
- First: Cecilia Corbin
10) Sports Communication — A series of speeches designed to provide experience in three methods of speech delivery (manuscript, memorized and impromptu) in a contemporary sports communication context.
- Fourth: Jared Shipley
11) Table Topics — An impromptu event where the speaker turns over the notecard for the prompt and must begin speaking immediately for a three-minute presentation.
- Third: Hannah Sowers
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MB/PKL