ACC’s 2016 Annual Speech Competition that was held on Friday, April 29, was more than just a simple competition. The first-place winner is going to Red Rocks Community College on Friday, May 6, for the Metro Speech Competition.

There were eleven speeches presented at the competition and the topics ranged from “Taking Chronic Illness Awareness to the Next Level” to “Faults in our School System.” The students all had to have taken COM 115-Public Speaking during the 2015-16 school year.

Each of the students had different interests, to name a few: one student wanted to receive a major in chemical engineering, another wanted to receive a master’s in fine arts, while yet another wanted to receive a major in marketing.

The master of ceremony, William Ashcraft, introduced each speaker and pointed out that the majority of the students participating had been terrified of public speaking before taking COM 115. He also read a few of the rules and thanked many of the sponsors when introducing each student.

The three judges, Casey Lansinger, Suzanne Frisch and Kristine Doherty, sat directly in front of the stage. They kept track of the points for each speaker and at the end of the competition, the results of the top three winners were announced by Terri Scrima, the Department Chair of Communications at ACC, and Kristin Ashcraft, who set up the event.

Each winner won cash prizes and plaques. The third-place winner, with 293 points, was Danielle Plowright, whose speech was titled “Perpetuation of Rape Culture.” The second-place winner, with 297 points, was Abigail Jones, whose speech was titled “We Don’t Encourage That Here.” The first-place winner, with 299 points, was Kara Garr, whose speech was titled “No Kid Hungry: Funding School Lunch.”

“It was a wonderful event and a wonderful opportunity,” Kristin Ashcraft said.

For more information about ACC’s Communications courses, click here.