Junior Spanish major Julie Ritchick participates in Tuesday evening's Speak Out in Linthicum Hall. The event included presentations by nationally-ranked and award-winning members of the TU speech team. [Click to enlarge]

Nine female students “spoke out” during a speech and drama performance Tuesday evening in Linthicum Hall.

Darren Goins, the new director for the speech and debate program, hosted “Speak Out: A Speech and Drama Hour” which included presentations by nationally-ranked and award-winning members of the Towson University speech team.

Speakers came from as close as Baltimore and as far as Bosnia in order to represent the 40-year-old speech and debate program.

Goins, who introduced each member and Towson’s part in the presentation, said he is very proud of the talent holding together this year’s debate team.

“TU speakers and debaters have won awards across the U.S. and in international competition and the coaching staff wants everyone to share in our pride,” he said. “We are one of the only squads to have speech and debate competing side by side and allowing students to compete on both parts of the team.”

Tuesday each student gave at least one speech, offering the audience voice alterations, dramatic expression and absolute truth. Each speaker incorporated her own animation and opinion into each piece.

Speaker and senior communication studies major Kate Jones presented three speeches, including a duo with English education major Sandy Grove. Jones’ topics included “Girl Bullying,” “Profanity in the Workplace” and “American Centricity.”

“I like to pick the parts I get to play,” Jones said. “I used to be a girl bully; we thought profanity in the workplace would be a fun topic and being half Asian and half Irish, I chose to show other people, in a humorous way, that America really isn’t the center of the universe.”

Grove said the most difficult part of giving a speech is finding topics that are suitable and enjoyable to herself as well as the audience.

“I found if I can relate to it more, then I can perform that topic better, maybe even help others,” she said.

The event also included interpretations on poetry and prose in which the participants fell into role-playing but also presented persuasive speeches.

Junior Spanish major Julie Ritchick, junior mass communication major Dorothea Tsakiris and freshman Lauren Ferretti gave information on honor killing and racism.

Although the interpretations and role-playing pieces seemed livelier, visuals and information kept all of the speeches stimulating.

Goins said the performances included “oratories that the students have researched, written, rehearsed and presented at competitions during the academic year."

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