UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | March 28, 2024

Speech Competition deadlines drawing near

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Persuasive speaking will award students up to $1,000.

The Antone and Cola Bowler Persuasive Speech Competition is set for March 21. Students are to write an eight- to 10-minute speech revolving around a community issue.

Dixie State University’s first persuasive speech competition will be awarding three scholarships for the top three finalists. First place wins $1,000, second place wins $500, and third place wins $250.

Don Hinton, the dean of school of arts and letters, said speeches need to be on a local matter that affects the college and its students.

“It needs to be a persuasive speech about things like the smoking ban on campus, or the name change,” Hinton said. “Basically anything that causes controversy.”

Communication Department Chair Brent Yergensen said the competition is judged by the members of the communication department and funded in multiple ways.

“It is funded out of VP Don Hinton’s office, based on an endowment given decades ago by Antone and Cola Bowler, who helped the Dixie forensics team,” Yergensen said.

Hinton said he met Antone Bowler 25 years ago when he was the adviser for the forensics team.

“Antone Bowler came to me and discussed (what it was like) being on the forensics team back in 1930,” Hinton said. “I then showed him the plaque the 1930 forensics team had and he began to discuss setting up an endowment plan that awarded the forensics team with scholarship money every year. After the forensics team died out, we needed to come up with another way to honor Bowler’s money.”

Hinton and Yergensen then put together the competition to award the money in a way that was close to awarding it to the forensics team.

“The idea of the forensics team was to refine students’ ability to think critically, and that is the basis of this competition,” Hinton said.

To fill out an application, go to http://www.dixie.edu/cnm/speech_contest_form.php