Before a panel of former White House and Cabinet speechwriters, eight students delivered five-minute speeches in the final round of the fourth annual U.Va. Student Oratory Competition Monday evening. Think Again, a University initiative that promotes free speech, and the Karsh Institute of Democracy hosted the event with the goal of sparking conversation and civic engagement among audience members.
The finalists — four undergraduate students and four graduate students — answered the prompt “Tell the story of a hero of our American democracy” for the chance to win $1,000. Each finalist focused their speech on a notable figure or group of people, arguing their opinions on what makes someone a hero in American democracy.
Mary Kate Cary, director of Think Again and adjunct politics professor, said this year’s prompt and diverse panel of judges aimed to encourage participants to deliver apolitical speeches. She said one of the competition’s goals was to highlight the importance of nonpartisan conversations regarding American democracy.
“These aren't political speeches. They're evergreen, timeless, pretty much apolitical,” Cary said. “That's what I like about it — you could read some of these speeches 20 years from now, and you'd have no idea what the current events are. They're written to last forever.”
Fourth-year College student Sidney Seybold and Kamau Walker, Master in Fine Arts in Poetry candidate, won in the undergraduate and graduate divisions, respectively. In her speech, Seybold told the story of Kurt Smith, a Thomas Jefferson impersonator who is based in Colonial Williamsburg, as well as the stories of history educators who she viewed as heroes in American democracy. Walker delivered a speech on James Baldwin, the renowned writer and civil rights activist of the 20th century.
This year’s judges included Peter Lee Hamilton, winner of the 2023 competition and J.D./MBA graduate in the Class of 2024, and Clark Judge, Rob Noel, Paul Ozulak and Sarada Peri, whose backgrounds range from speech writing for former presidents to secretaries of state.
In the first round of the competition, participants submitted written copies of their speeches for review. From there, 20 students moved on to the semi-finals, a record high for the competition, where they read their speeches or delivered them from memory. The three semi-finalist judges — former Student Affairs Chief Pat Lampkin, Chief Creative Officer Matt Weber and Paul Wagner, an Oscar-winning filmmaker and lecturer in the Drama department — then selected the eight finalists.
In the final round, competitors were again instructed to perform their speeches, with all eight finalists opting to deliver them from memory. As they stood behind a podium or paced on the stage, many structured their speech to follow a story-like outline. Judges scored them with a 50 percent emphasis on their delivery, including hand gestures, confidence and pauses, and a 50 percent emphasis on the organization of their speech and argument.
Ozulak, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and director and co-founder of West Wing Writers, said he was impressed by the competition, particularly Seybold and Walker’s speeches. He said beyond their written argument, all competitors delivered their takeaways in a strong and effective manner.
“The 50 percent [focus on] speaking is really impressive because most people don't develop that as part of oratory competitions. It's mostly the writing,” Ozulak said. “The fact that it's 50-50, I didn't expect, and I was completely blown away that everybody basically memorized [their] speeches.”
The competition’s unique emphasis on dialogue was by design, according to Cary. Cary and a colleague at Harvard University founded the competition after watching Dartmouth College’s Oratory Competition. Cary said she and her colleague drew inspiration from historical icons of the University and Harvard — Thomas Jefferson, the writer, and John F. Kennedy, the orator — envisioning how students from both schools could participate together in the event. While Harvard University ended up pulling out of the process at the last minute, Cary went on to organize the competition and hosted the first one in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, Cary has continued to host the competition for University students. While in the first three years, participants had to video themselves delivering their speeches, this year was the first time the semi-final round was hosted in-person. This year’s competition also had an increased amount of prize money and was the first time undergraduate and graduate competitors were split into separate divisions. This year’s winners have the opportunity to speak at various events in Virginia’s July 4 celebrations, which will lead up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
In her opening speech, Aimee Guidera, secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Virginia, explained how the competition aims to strengthen civic education not only at the University but across the state. She announced that the competition will be offered at all 2-year and 4-year higher education institutions in Virginia next year, and that the winners from each campus will be invited to a statewide competition.
Guidera also cited a statistic from ABC News and the Washington Post — that when a random sample of adult Americans was asked to think of a person in public life today that they would call a hero or heroine, 59 percent of sampled adults could not name a single person. Guidera said the competition aims to address this issue by encouraging people to reflect on the state of American democracy and the figures they view as inspirations.
“I'm hoping that this oratory contest … is something of joy and brings people together to celebrate something good, fun and thought-provoking,” Guidera said. “[I hope] it leads to further reflection and, more importantly, action about what we can do as citizens to continue to strengthen our democracy and our communities.”
Seybold, the undergraduate winner, said the competition offered an opportunity for participants and audience members to engage in meaningful conversations about American democracy, particularly in light of recent political tensions.
“These spaces are so important, especially in this election that has left us so divided,” Seybold said. “Providing spaces where people can come together and learn from each other, I think, is so valuable to our democracy.”
For Walker, the graduate student winner, speechwriting was an introspective and creative process. He compared his preparation for the competition to writing a poem, saying he began with a nebulous topic and sat down to write whatever came to mind. He ultimately landed on James Baldwin, who he described as an inspiring figure who used love and togetherness to foster freedom and advance the spirit of democracy.
“That kind of exercise of asking, ‘Who is the person I feel compelled to write about’ or ‘What is the story I feel compelled to tell’ is something that's always … a beneficial exercise and moment for reflection,” Walker said.
Seybold reflected on the competition’s significance in her time at the University. While she said she has engaged in difficult conversations throughout her four years on Grounds, she said her speech was a daring conclusion in her academic career.
“The biggest mark of my U.Va. experience has been learning how to agree to disagree and how to have polite and respectful but meaningful political dialogue,” Seybold said. “This was my final step to putting my voice out there, developing a good argument and not being scared that I was going to be canceled.”
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