Each semester for the past 29 years, the speech department has been putting on the Speech Showcase. Over 900 students are taking some sort of speech class this semester whether it’s public speaking, intro to communication, business and professional, or oral interpretation. At the showcase, the top few were spotlighted.
In class the students get to do an informative speech and a persuasive speech. They are recorded during class and then uploaded to the server in the speech lab. From those speeches the nine professors, including adjuncts, select one student from their classes and submit them to a facilitator who reviews them and selects the top six students to showcase. This year the facilitator picked five students to do the Speech Showcase: Mariana Nguyen, Brittany Claramunt, Robert Walls, Jacob Pullin and Michelle Villareal, with the master of ceremonies Mariah Massengll.
“It was really fun and natural. It made me feel personally involved with the speakers and the program,” Massengll said.
“I think the showcase gives the students an opportunity to be commended for their hard work, gives them experience to speak in front of a large audience, and builds credibility for the future like college applications, scholarships and jobs,” said Mendy Meurer, professor of speech.
To be selected to do the showcase is a great honor for these students. It allows them to show their research and hard work on the topics they choose to speak about in class. Students don’t have to be speech majors to be selected for the Speech Showcase, they just have to be in a speech class to be in the running.