Speech & Debate

Senior Jess Kennedy and her teammates on GCU Speech and Debate showed off the skills that earned them top finishes nationally this year in a showcase on Wednesday night on the Grove Lawn. One of those skills is quickly coming up with a speech based off an audience member quote, and Kennedy nailed it. “To be up there and see the wheels turning in people’s heads as they consider things that maybe they hadn’t before, you really do feel like you are making a difference,” she said.

Edgar Moreno played Donald Trump. Devon Wemple played Joe Biden. But the GCU Speech and Debate team members weren’t 100% accurate in their imitations during a mock presidential debate on Wednesday. They were civil, even presidential, in laying out the positions of the candidates prior to Tuesday’s election.

Ajienne Lambey felt helpless over the summer watching all the social unrest on TV. So she expressed her emotions through her artwork and looked inward at what it meant to her to be Black in America. Darian Cruz expresses her culture through her cut paper creations, which include images of skulls, sacred hearts and calla lilies. They are all common images in the Mexican culture. They were just two of the artists featured Tuesday evening in the Un1ty One Week Art Walk, organized by the Multicultural, Diversity and Inclusion Office.

The Multicultural, Diversity and Inclusion Office has another big event coming up. Un1ty One Week — that’s unity with a “1” instead of an “i” — starts Monday and will include student discussions about diversity via Zoom, an art walk, a presidential-style debate, a cooking and culture show and a parade of the nations.

Five student groups presented their research at the Undergraduate Learning Community and Research Symposium Friday. “It’s very clear to me that what used to be done at the graduate level is now being done at the undergraduate level and with significant excellence,” said GCU President Brian Mueller. Those interesting findings cover everything from heart rates to something called Ugly Gerry.

GCU’s Speech and Debate teams are all about expressing views. There’s no shortage of that in the year leading to the presidential election — and during the week impeachment hearings are televised. The difference is the five members of Speech and Debate shared how to express those views with respect and grace, part of the GCU’s yearlong initiative on civil discourse.

Among 30 speech and debate teams, GCU finished runner-up to Concordia University of Irvine, Calif., on Sunday at the Sunset Cliffs Classic Tournament at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Jess Kennedy, Tommee Gleason and Xanthia Clow led the speech team. Kennedy won two events in the novice division and was named the second-ranked speaker of the tournament. Gleason clamed a pair of third-place finishes and reached the finals in two other events and Clow placed third in two events. Two debate pairs (Matthew Calderwood-Grace Laidlaw and Ben Kuykendall-Joseph-Madere) advanced to the top eight.