May 2, 2008

Troy Students Excel at Public Speaking

TROY -- The Department of Communication Studies hosted Troy University’s 17th Annual Intramural Debate and Speech Tournament recently with students competing in five categories: informative speaking, persuasive speaking, prose interpretation, poetry interpretation and storytelling.

University staff and faculty joined community members as judges for the tournament. The roster of judges included Derrick Brewster, Ursula Bryant, Sara Jo Burks, Maryjo Cochran, Bridgette Colaco, Sara Dismukes, David Dye, Judy Dye, Cathy Flynn, Jeffrey Gibson, Peter Howard, Michelle Johnson, Rebecca Money, Barbara Patterson, Patrick Rossi, Donna Sanders, Jeff Spurlock, Lottie Summerville and Anne Tolson.

Kimberly Frost, who won the Prose category and placed third in Persuasive Speaking, won the Overall Best Speaker Award and will receive the Boyd-King Debate and Forensics Scholarship. Her name will be displayed on a plaque within the Communication Studies Department. Kimberly is a junior from Birmingham, majoring in Communication Studies.

The annual tournament was established in 1991 to provide students with a fun and educational opportunity to apply their public speaking skills on a competitive level.

The full list of top competitors from the tournament is:

Poetry

1st Place Emily Hill, a junior from Troy, majoring in Communication Studies

2nd Place T.J. Martin, a junior majoring in Communication Studies from Opelika

3rd Place Denice McKee, a junior majoring in Communication Studies from Greenville

Honorable Mention: Kathleen Capps, a junior majoring in English and Secondary Education from Abbeville

Prose

1st Place Kimberly Frost, a junior majoring in Communication Studies, from Columbus, Ga. and Birmingham

2nd Place Anna Green, a senior majoring in Journalism, from Montgomery

3rd Place Whitney Keeter, a junior from Dothan

Storytelling

1st Place Grace Collins, a junior majoring in Theatre Education from Birmingham

2nd Place Stephanie Lee, a junior majoring in Communication Studies, from Andalusia

3rd Place Alissa Cannon, a senior majoring in Theatre from Thomasville

Honorable Mention: Junho Sung, a sophomore majoring in Business from Troy

Informative Speaking

1st Place T.J. Martin, a junior majoring in Communication Studies from Opelika

2nd Place René Zeringue, a freshman majoring in Communication Studies from Gadsden

3rd Place Junho Sung, a sophomore majoring in Business from Troy

Persuasive Speaking

1st Place Eric Loprete, a junior majoring in Journalism from Long Beach, Miss.

2nd Place Melissa Knowles, a sophomore majoring in Broadcast Journalism from the Bahamas

3rd Place Kimberly Frost, a junior majoring in Communication Studies from Columbus, Ga. and Birmingham

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