Last month, in partnership with the University of East Anglia, the PSA hosted its inaugural Student Political Speech Competition! For more information on this years competition visit our competition hub.
Last month, in partnership with the University of East Anglia, the PSA hosted its inaugural Student Political Speech Competition! For more information on this years competition visit our competition hub.
For last month’s World Speech Day (15 March) we celebrated by giving undergraduates from across the country the opportunity to perfect their public speaking skills through our first-ever Student Political Speech Competition. The live finals took place at ‘Epic Studios’ in Norwich, hosted by our fantastic colleagues from the University of East Anglia.
Congratulations to Molly Wilson from the University of Leicester, who was this year’s World Speech Day winner giving an emotive and personal speech on mental health. The judges thought that Molly delivered not only a well-structured and persuavsive speech but spoke powefully on a brave topic. Watch Molly’s speech below!
Molly had this to say on winning the competition: “I’ve got so much out of this competition. Professor Finlayson was a fantastic mentor and I hope to continue speaking. But most of all, I hope I have raised awareness for mental health and the crisis the care system is in”.
To watch all our finalists perform their political speeches, on topics ranging from ‘unspoken privilege’ to Scottish Independence, click here.
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On Thursday 12th March 2020 as a part of World Speech Day 2020, I took part in the inaugural national undergraduate political speech competition. The motto of this competition was ‘Dare to Speak Up’, and therefore encouraged young people from up and down the country to apply and give short speeches on topics which they are passionate about.
Public speaking is something that I am personally very passionate about. As a young person, I know how hard it can be to get my voice heard over the crowd, which is why events such as World Speech Day are so important. In 2019, I took part in and eventually won World Speech Day Norwich which has provided me with so many brilliant opportunities since, including being invited to speak at the European Youth Parliament as an inclusion of the EU Youth Conference.
Without this event, I would not have been given the opportunity to speak up on a topic that I feel passionate about, and would not have been able to spread my views across the continent.
World Speech Day 2019 was open to all ages, and only marketed within Norwich. This year however, due to the success of the competition in the past, entries were open exclusively to university students up and down the country. Clearly many students were drawn to the competition such as I had been the year before, as dozens applied with video entries to speak on a platform on topics which they were passionate about. In the end, only 10 were selected and the next stage of the competition began. Each speaker was paired up with an experienced advisor who would help them in the writing of their speeches and how to present them to a live audience. These mentors were experienced in public speaking and had backgrounds as political speech writers, journalists and academics and we as competitors were extremely fortunate to be gaining such bespoke guidance.
The competition itself took place in Epic TV Studios in Norwich, the venue which had hosted previous World Speech Days. Perfectly placed for the event because of the prior experience of the team running it, the University of East Anglia Broadcast Journalism students provided their services to livestream and record the event worldwide. Admittedly, this did add to the pressure somewhat as our speeches were no longer just being given to an audience, but to the entire internet as well!
The speeches on the night covered a variety of topics: mental health, Scottish independence, climate change, trade policy just to name a few. Informative and thought provoking talks were given by all the contestants and I know that I personally had my mind opened to a variety of view-points that I had not been exposed to previously.
Throughout the day, we (the contestants and myself) spent time getting to know each other and listening to the various talks people would give. We gave advice and everyone was very supportive throughout the whole day. There was not an aura of competitiveness or ego anywhere to be found, but there did have to be one winner at the end of the day: Molly Wilson’s powerful speech on mental health treatment took the prize and was a well-deserved victory.
In the end, the event accomplished what it set out to do: inspire young people into speaking up on an issue which they care about. I look forward to more successful years of World Speech Day. This day could also not have been accomplished without Beth Derks, whose tireless efforts meant that this day was a success. Without her, contestants from all years would not have been inspired to speak up and share their ideas and she is a credit to the University of East Anglia.”
