Clarissa Jones
Staff Writer
Winners of the Womack Speech Competition used rhetoric to tackle controversial issues in the annual event at Pepperdine April 17.
Over 40 students competed in the event, which consisted of three categories of speech: informative, impromptu, and perspective. The Competition began April 14 with the first round and semi-finals.
The top two from each category competed in the final round, which took place on April 17 in Elkins Auditorium. The three distinguished guest judges were David Cooper, a public relations consultant and professor; Sheldon Lodmer, a Pepperdine Crest Associate; and Dr. Gary Moore, founder of PepTalkers.
The final round of the competition started with informative speeches. The winner Lisa Brooks, a freshman, gave a powerful speech entitled “Homelessness in America: Humanizing the Problem.”
Brooks, who grew up in a suburb of Dallas, said she was never exposed to poverty. After a trip to skid row last semester, she observed homelessness for the first time. “It seemed like a forgotten area,” she said. “A place where the world dumped all these people they didn’t want.”
Through research and her experiences at Skid Row, she realized it is a human problem. She said although most people look down on them, she has found that they are not so different from us.
David Cooper, a finals judge, called her speech “a different take on a familiar topic.”
Greg Daum, Brooks’ professor is proud of her first place finish, but is more impressed with her humility and integrity. “She is genuinely interested in the topic of homelessness, always asking how she can help the homeless and make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate.”
Brooks urged the audience to make a difference in any possible way. “Maybe you don’t have money or food, but you can give them human respect,” she said.
Freshmen Michelle Gill made a difference when she won first place in the impromptu speech competition. She was given two minutes to organize her thoughts on the phrase “tomorrow is another day,” and five minutes to discuss it.
She divided her speech into three sections, discussing how the past relates to the future, how the present relates to the future, and how the future matters today.
Cooper said Gill’s ability to organize caught his attention. “It made me want to listen, to wait and see,” he said.
Gill described her past and how it is shaping her life. A native of Milwaukee, one of the most segregated cities in the United States, she experienced racism often. “They bused inner city students to suburbs to keep up diversity,” she said. “I experienced most racism from teachers who only saw me as a black child, and couldn’t see my full potential.”
Although she had troubles in the past, she feels a sense of accomplishment today. “I made it out,” she said. “I’m getting an education. Most of my peers didn’t get that chance.”
Gill plans to use her education to pursue a career in medicine. She said her goal is to build a clinic and help the people in her hometown.
“Tomorrow has endless possibilities,” she said. “The future is a reason reach for tomorrow.”
While Gill’s speech had a positive conclusion, another speech contained serious subject matter. Arguably the most controversial speech of the evening came from Persuasive Speech Winner Ariana Estrada. She gave a graphic speech on the topic of misogyny in modern music. The speech focused mostly on the demoralization and degradation of women in hip-hop music and videos.
Estrada started the speech with an eye-opening compellation of scene from videos featuring popular hip-hop artists Nelly, 50 Cent and the Ying Yang Twins. The 30-second clip was a montage of scantily clad women dancing provocatively and men touching them inappropriately.
Before this speech was presented in the final round, it caused a bit of controversy. In the first two rounds of competition, the judges believed the speech was important and Estrada should advance. However, they were concerned with the graphic images on the video, which included a man swiping a credit card down a woman’s backside. After the judges viewed and discussed the tape they asked Estrada to edit the video for the final.
“Anybody could be watching them because it’s public domain,” Estrada argued. “For me to change it would be defeating the point.”
However, she felt in order to get the message out to everybody, she would have to compromise. On the final night of the competition she showed a shorter version of the video.
Cooper called the material very strong but admitted it was a helpful visual support for her speech.
Copper also noticed her enthusiasm for the topic. “She had a passion about what she was speaking about,” he said.
Estrada displayed this passion throughout her speech and encouraged the audience not only to think about the problem, but also to take action. “I challenge you to get offended,” she said.
To inform the public about misogyny in the media, Estrada is working with a group of people to create a website. It is currently under construction, but Estrada urges those who are interested in the issue to contact womenagainstmisogyny@yahoo.com.
“Our purpose is to raise awareness over the issue and give men and women an avenue to act on it,” said Estrada.
Although their topics varied from homelessness to racism to misogyny, all three winners had a similar interest in mind: making a difference.
07-12-2006