Sports gear pitch wins public speaking event
A student speech extolling the virtues of high-tech sportswear proved golden for one UW-Parkside student Thursday night. Matthew Kelly's homage to Under Amour took first place during the fall semester Public Speaking Night event. Presented by the Theater Arts Department's Speech Studies program, the program featured students from the classes of Bonnie Peterson, Nicholas Ravnikar, and Michael Seyller.
Before an audience of about 100 friends and classmates, seven students delivered presentations on subjects ranging from time travel and the importance of ambiguity in speech to the lack of attention being given to troops fighting the war in Afghanistan. Students were given six minutes to state their case using a PowerPoint presentation and closing with a call to action. Judges Alan Hafemeister, an award winning forensics coach, and businesswoman and public speaker Crystel Lyons gave style points for eye contact with the audience, vocal delivery and the like.
Kelly, a sophomore Sport Management major, spoke of the meteoric rise of Under Armour after the company's founder Kevin Plank designed a superior T-shirt for athletes. In little more than a decade, Kelly said, the interlocked UA logo has grown large enough to challenge giants like Nike and Adadis in the sports apparel business.
UW-Parkside freshman Political Science major Jarrett Bergman talked about the possibilities of traveling through time and urged listeners to push government and universities to turn time travel from science fiction to science fact.
Speakers Heather Friedman and Rob Hogan took differing views of the soft drink/bottled water industry. Friedman, a senior in Criminal Justice, spoke about the health dangers of soft drinks, urging listeners to drink more water. Hogan, a sophomore majoring in Business Management, criticized bottled water on everything from its cancer and pollution causing plastic containers to the mediocre product many of those bottles contain.
Business junior April Yates advocated the elimination of speed limits calling them a "gross misuse" of public funds by law enforcement agencies and a revenue raising scheme by governments. Fitness Management major Andrew Kossow spoke movingly about the "Forgotten War" still being waged in Afghanistan. A junior and a veteran of the war in Iraq, Kossow said more attention is given to Lindsay Lohan's frequent brushes with the law than to the deaths of soldiers. Jennifer Puma, who followed Kossow on stage and spoke about the need for gray areas in speech, said she almost cried during his presentation.
The program was held Nov. 29 in the Student Center Cinema.Publish date: 11/30/2012
Back
