Everett competition advances

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What would you do for $3,000?
This semester, 16 students competed for the 14th Annual Edward Everett Prize for Oratory. This year’s topic is “Privacy and Surveillance: The Costs to Our Free Republic.”
First place will receive $3,000. The second and third­place finalists will receive $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.
Though the contest was open to any student on campus in good standing, only five (plus two alternates), survived the preliminary judging round, in which contestants delivered a memorized speech based on the manuscript they submitted. The finalists were junior Dylan Hoover, sophomore Shaun Lichti, senior Chris Landers, freshman Keyona Shabazz, and senior Melika Willoughby.
Despite the potential reward, only about 16 students compete each year, according to Professor of Speech Kirstin Kiledal.
“Sixteen is within our norm, maybe a little bit below range,” she said.
Two preliminary rounds of judging, with two judges per section, narrowed down the field to its

finalists, who now must give essentially the same speech before an entirely different panel of judges on March 4. Any changes must be strictly technical, dealing with issues such as length and timing, and approved by Kiledal.
“Changes to speeches have to be made with my knowledge and permission,” she said.

As the finalists, most of whom come from speech backgrounds, await this last competition, they are trying to refine their arguments and speeches as much as they can.
Willoughby, new to the competition on a last­chance urging from her parents, said she will try to focus on the audience, and stress speech flow.

“The biggest question for me is, ‘Who is my audience?’ Speaking, properly done, is a service to the audience,” she said. “I’m not married to my script. I’ll say what naturally flows.”
She’s also not afraid of the competition.
“I’m a novice facing a lot of veterans. But it’s still anyone’s game,” she said.

Lichti chose to focus on the nuances in the topic, which has been in the news since last year’s revelations about the extent of National Security Agency programs.
“It’s nice to have a broad prompt, because it ensures variety, even if people are ideologically similar,” he said. “The issue of government surveillance doesn’t really have a partisan divide. It’s a little bit more nuanced.”

Hoover, a competition veteran, has focused on telling a story, and practicing delivery.
“I wanted to do something no other competitor would do: tell a story about all the ways I’ve been monitored and recorded,” he said. “It has to sound really natural. So I stand up and practice the speech a bajillion times. Anybody can write a speech.”
Lichti and Hoover’s status as finalists has an added wrinkle, however: Hoover is Lichti’s big brother in the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, which adds several more dimensions to the nature of the competition.
“I’ll be proud of Dylan when he gets second,” said Lichti.
But Hoover disagreed.
“He’s delusional,” he said. “But I’m really excited to be competing against him. There will be a real sense of camaraderie — and competition.”