Montclair State University’s School of Communication and Media is hosting the annual Dannis B. Eaton Speech Competition. The top three winners of the competition will receive monetary prizes: $300 for first place, $200 for second place and $100 for third place winners.
The competition has been running since 2017. This year’s topic is “My Earth” in partnership with #FocusClimateChange, a group effort by all media outlets within the School of Communication and Media to raise awareness on the topic of climate change.
Marylou Naumoff, the communication studies faculty member who is in charge of the Dannis B. Eaton Speech Competition explained, “I wanted it to be broad enough that different students could have different ways of interpreting the topic, and maybe they would bring not only their own personal views and experiences to inform their speech, but also maybe their disciplinary backgrounds or what they are studying.”
The competition will start with a qualifying round in room 201 of Morehead Hall on Oct. 30, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Each students will have 2 minutes to explain their topic and speech to the judges.
Stephanie Pitera, a graduate assistant for the public speaking resource center at Montclair State, is helping out with this years speech competition and explained how the speech selection works.
“Students are going to come in, we will schedule them for every 5 minutes, and students will give a 1 to 2 minute preview of their speech,” Pitera said. “Then we are going to pick probably 5 students to move on for the actual competition, and that will be on Nov. 30.”
Pitera recommends that students looking to compete in the speech competition should go to the public speaking resource center located on the second floor of Morehead Hall.
“We can help them really flesh out their ideas, [for example], help with verbal or nonverbal things that we can help them with to be a better speaker,” Pitera said.
For more information and to register for the Dannis B. Speech Competition email piteras1@montclair.edu.
