SCHOLARSHIPS ALWAYS AVAILABLE!

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SPEECH TEAM EXPERIENCE… FOR NOW.

Due to personal coaching reasons, for the foreseeable future, you can compete on the squad,
receive a scholarship, and avoid all of the things people fear and/or despise about competing in speech.

What does that mean? By temporarily shifting our focus to competing only in the Online
Asynchronous Tournament Series (OATS), you:

  • …won’t have to travel;
  • …won’t have to request time off of work to travel;
  • …won’t have to sit around all weekend at speech tournaments;
  • …won’t have to watch anybody else’s speeches; or
  • …won’t even have to perform in front of an audience.

And you can compete on the team AND do drama AND make art AND do sports…AND (if you
qualify) get scholarship money for each activity. Curious? Contact the coach today!

Benefits:

  • Develop critical thinking skills
  • Gain confidence in front of a crowd
  • Improve research, writing, and organization skills
  • Become a strong and effective public speaker
  • Students often report experiencing academic and personal growth from participating in speech and debate while also gaining a variety of skills that future employers find invaluable.
  • Participants will join the ranks of a prestigious group of past speech team participants, including Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Colbert, Tom Brokaw, and many more…

What we do:

  • Students develop speeches in three categories of events—Public Address, Limited Prep, and Oral Interpretation—and perform those speeches at various intercollegiate tournaments across the state of Illinois.
    • Public Address events: Informative Speaking, Persuasive Speaking, Speech to Entertain, and Communication Analysis
    • Limited Prep events: Impromptu Speaking, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Parliamentary Debate
    • Oral Interpretation events: Drama Interpretation, Poetry Interpretation, Prose Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation, and Duo Interpretation

If you are interested in joining the team or learning more about it, contact the team coach, communications instructor Andrew J. Kirk. Swing by his office (Taylor 125),  send Mr. Kirk an email​, give him a call (309) 649-6263, or watch for posted announcements regarding the first team meeting of the year!