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Three Hamilton students were recently awarded the top prizes at the College’s popular Public Speaking Competition, and they have shared their best tips for educating, entertaining, and persuading their audiences.

Her love of public speaking goes back to her college days, when she was required to take a course in the subject. Now Cari Craden ’87 P’21 is a public speaking and pitch coach — in two languages.

Five students were awarded prizes in three categories in the annual Public Speaking Competition that took place this year over Zoom. Presentations were either persuasive or informative in nature, and in one category, students addressed an assigned topic.

We asked this year’s public speaking competition winners to offer a glimpse into what it takes to create and deliver a great speech. Here’s what they had to say …

Loving math and persuasively sharing the love are two different things, which is why students in Math 235 present research projects to their classmates and take a 25-minute oral exam one-on-one with their professor.

Hamilton’s Mock Trial team traveled to State College, Pa., and competed in Penn State’s 12th annual Happy Valley Invitational on Oct. 24 to 26. It was a challenging tournament with nationally-ranked teams and a great opportunity for Mock Trial members to practice their arguments and debate skills. This was the second tournament of the season for the team, and also the first competition for the majority of the first-year students on the team. It was a valuable experience for them, as they were able to finally compete and experience Mock Trial after two months of practice.

During the Three-Minute Thesis competition, each student only had three minutes to explain their topics and findings to a non-specialist audience.

Amy Gaffney, director of the Oral Communication Center, was recently recognized at the National Association of Communication Centers conference where she was awarded the Joyce Ferguson Faculty Paper Award.

Hamilton's Oral Communication Center organized the annual Public Speaking Competition where students compete for more than $12,000 in prizes.

Amy Gaffney, director of the Oral Communication Center, co-authored “Spewing nonsense [or not]: Communication competence and socialization in optics and photonics workplaces,” published in the journal Communication Education.