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Goshen College

Students to deliver speeches in annual C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest Feb. 16

January 25, 2021

Event: C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest
Date and time: Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.
Location: Virtual | goshen.edu/livestream
Cost: Free and open to the public

Students to deliver speeches in annual C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest Feb. 16

GOSHEN, Ind. – Five Goshen College students will speak on themes of peace and justice during the 2021 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest on Tuesday, Feb. 16. The annual event will take place at 7 p.m. with a small audience in the Umble Center and will be live-streamed to the public at goshen.edu/livestream.

This year’s participants and their topics are:

  • Denisse Aguilar, a sophomore psychology and sociology from Goshen, on “Living the American Dream on Borrowed Time.”
  • Gabriella Klopfenstein, a junior public relations major from Goshen, on “Share the Road: My Dad’s Story.”
  • Olivia Krall, a sophomore history major from Carmel, Indiana, on “The Rope That Ties Peace and Pain Together.”
  • Mackenzie Miller, a senior journalism and English major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on “Making Peace with Death: Transforming a Language of Violence and Inequality in America.”
  • Lisa Nalliah, a sophomore environmental and marine science major from Huntington, Indiana, on “Change Is Purple.”

The participants will deliver 8- to 10-minute speeches on topics of their choosing that relate to peace and justice. The speeches will be judged on originality, integration of the topic and a peace position, and general standards of delivery.

The judges include Robert Brenneman, Goshen College professor of criminal justice and sociology; Malinda Berry, associate professor of theology and ethics at Associated Menonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS); and Janna Hunter-Bowman, assistant professor of peace studies and christian social ethics at AMBS.

The C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest is a U.S./Canada Mennonite Central Committee-sponsored event. Participants compete for cash prizes provided by the trust of C. Henry Smith, a Mennonite historian and professor at Goshen and Bluffton (Ohio) colleges. The purpose of the contest is to give students the opportunity to become involved with the cause for peace and develop rhetorical skills.

Speech contests have been a tradition at Goshen College since the early 1900s. The C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest provides the opportunity for the campus community to hear about contemporary peace issues. For an archive of past winners, visit www.goshen.edu/academics/communication/annual-peace-oratorical-contest