Students to deliver speeches in annual C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest Feb. 22

Event: C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest
Date and time: Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.
Location: Umble Center | goshen.edu/livestream
Cost: Free and open to the public

Four Goshen College students will speak on themes of peace and justice during the 2022 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest on Tuesday, Feb. 22. The annual event will take place at 7 p.m. in the Umble Center and will be live-streamed to the public.

This year’s participants and their topics are:

• Ebtihal Abdelaziz, a senior mathematics and physics major from Cairo, Egypt, on “Alone in Space, Connected by Science.”
• Caleb Gingerich, a junior history and writing major from Kalona, Iowa, on “Rejecting Whitewashed History: A Call For Reparations.”
• Bryan Hernandez Rodriguez, a junior computer science and sustainability studies major from Goshen, on “La Jaula de Oro (The Golden Cage): The Tale of the Young Migrant Factory Worker.”
• Greta Lapp Klassen, a junior English major from Goshen, on “Humanizing Our World, One Walkway at a Time.”

The participants will deliver 8- to 10-minute speeches on topics of their choosing that relate to peace and justice. The speeches will be judged on originality, integration of the topic and a peace position, and general standards of delivery.

The judges include Robert Brenneman, professor of criminal justice and sociology at Goshen College; Janna Hunter-Bowman, associate professor of peace studies and Christian social ethics at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary; and Julia Gingrich, pastor at Eighth Street Mennonite Church, Goshen.

The C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest is a U.S./Canada Mennonite Central Committee-sponsored event. Participants compete for cash prizes provided by the trust of C. Henry Smith, a Mennonite historian and professor at Goshen and Bluffton (Ohio) colleges. The purpose of the contest is to give students the opportunity to become involved with the cause for peace and develop rhetorical skills.

Speech contests have been a tradition at Goshen College since the early 1900s. The C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest provides the opportunity for the campus community to hear about contemporary peace issues. For an archive of past winners, visit www.goshen.edu/academics/communication/annual-peace-oratorical-contest