Cyndi Grobmeier
On March 23 Saint Xavier University’s Communications department held its first COMM-101 Speech Competition.
Due to the great success from the speakers and the large turnout from the audience, the competition will be held every semester so that each communications class will have a chance to be represented and all students will have a chance to take part.
In an interview with The Xavierite via email, Cyndi Grobmeier, a Communications Professor at SXU, explains how the department came up with the idea of holding such an event and the people who were involved in the deciding process.
“Professor Charles Alexander and I had been talking about having a debate among all of the sections of COMM-101; logistically, however, it was challenging to figure out how we could make it work given that the classes are held at all times, day and evening. When Dr. Brad Mello joined the Communication Department this year as the new Chairperson, he mentioned that during his past position with the National Communication Association, he was invited to judge a similar event at George Washington University. This inspired the idea for our COMM-101 Speech Competition,” said Grobmeier.
All students are required to take at least one communications course at SXU and this event gives those in COMM-101 the chance to be a part of a competition amongst all of the classes.
Grobmeier explains the competition’s goal and how it is beneficial to both students on stage and their classmates and other supporters within the audience.
“The main goal of the event was to give our COMM-101 students the opportunity to showcase their oral communication skills in a real-world forum, outside of their classrooms. The Speech Competition gave some of our best students the opportunity to broaden their public speaking experience outside of their comfort zone in an authentic learning experience. What also came out of the event was a great sense of school spirit, which was a pleasant surprise. It was fantastic to see so many of the student speakers’ classmates come out to support them and cheer them on,” said Grobmeier.
Any student registered in one of the fifteen sections of COMM-101 during this semester was eligible to participate in this competition. After presenting their informative speeches, the class took a vote to choose a student as a representative in the competition.
The night of the event, there were two judges which Professor Grobmeier introduces and explains their judging methods.
“Our judges were Dr. Kathy Alaimo, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Brad Mello, Chair of the Communication Department. Each contestant was judged using the General Education Oral Communication rubric which is used to evaluate students in all of the COMM-101 classes,” said Grobmeier.
Grobmeier hopes that this event becomes well known across SXU and attracts a greater amount of students, faculty, and community members to the night of the event. This semester, there were about 100 people in the audience and it would be great to see this number grow each semester.
Also within future semesters, the Communications Department hopes to have both a first and second place winner at the competition.
“We would love to see this become an event that students look forward to each semester. In the future we will encourage everyone to come out to support their friends and classmates, even if they are not enrolled in COMM-101. The ultimate goal is that the student speakers generate publicity for the event through social media and word-of-mouth, in addition to our traditional publicizing efforts,” said Grobmeier.
The winner of the competition was Luke Archer, a student in one of Professor Genie McAvoy’s COMM-101 classes. Archer gave an excellent speech on laughter which had the audience informed, and of course laughing, throughout his presentation.
“Luke’s presentation on the benefit of humor began with pig jokes and ended with a reference to his pig tie, and left the audience laughing throughout. Luke received a $25 gift card, in addition to bragging rights, for winning the Speech Competition. Luke’s parents came out to support him, as did many of his friends and classmates,” said Grobmeier.
Archer’s speech topic was chosen when an informative speech was assigned in class. He explains what the assignment was, and how he decided to present on laughter.
“Our prompt required that we had to pick either a topic from the first or last letters of our names, so my options were LA. So, somehow it just came to me, and I thought, how about laughter. I like to laugh, I think it’s beneficial, so I decided to do the benefits of laughter. It just gradually came. I thought about the social, economic, and health benefits and then it just evolved from there,” said Archer.
The day of the event, Archer faced some nervousness, but quickly overcame the feeling when he was on stage. The positive reactions and laughter from the audience helped him to continue.
“I was very nervous before I gave it, but the second I got on the stage, it just seemed that everybody was clapping and very happy. Actually, my nervousness kind of disappeared. I know some of my fellow presenters say to keep the nerves down, you should grind your toes in your shoes, so I was doing that a little bit. When I started doing the standup, just the fact that people laughed at my jokes, that actually calmed me way down. Just the fact that people would laugh and applaud briefly also allowed me time to catch up and lower my nerves a little bit,” said Archer.
As mentioned before, Archer not only had the support of his fellow peers in the audience, but of his parents and grandfather as well. He goes on to say how much they have helped him throughout the years and particularly with this speech.
“For this speech, they helped me a lot, I would always read my speech and practice it in front of them. We must have gone through it at least five times over the weekend. I would just get up in front of them and practice it. They would give me feedback saying things like: you could slow down here, or great job on this, maybe elaborate on this, things of that nature. Just in general, they’re really the reason that I am the way I am today in terms of my academic performance, and my beliefs and values. All of my successes that I have achieved in my first year at Saint Xavier, it’s all because of them quite honestly,” said Archer.
Overall, the COMM-101 Speech Competition was a great success, and the Communications Department plans to continue in this success throughout future semesters.
On final notes, Grobmeier speaks about her favorite part of the evening and how well all of the contestants presented.
Grobmeier said, “The best part of the evening was seeing the student speakers get up there and present amazing speeches with complete confidence.” Grobmeier also spoke about how hard it is for some people to get up and speak.
“Roughly 80% of Americans fear public speaking, and these thirteen students got up on stage in front a crowd and did something that many seasoned professionals would be afraid to do. It was inspiring,” Grobmeier said.
Julie Gardner
News Editor
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