Bailey Oratorical Reflection

The Bailey Oratorical is an annual event that is held by Juniata College. The event is comprised of seven students that are selected from a preliminary contest, where each of them presented a speech. These speeches are centered around a different theme each year — for the 2019 Bailey, the prompt was as follows: “This I believe… How can your core beliefs shape our future?”

All of the contestants had very moving speeches about what they believe and how their values would continue to change the world. While I enjoyed most of the speeches, I found that the ones that really stood out were from the speakers that either stayed calm, and focused on portraying how much they believed in their values, all while using some form of humor or added another way to keep the audience engaged.

An example of a speaker that kept the audience engaged by using humor was Taylor Hallbuk. In Taylor’s speech, she kept the tone upbeat and fun while at the same time talking about some serious issues. During her speech, she kept a very even tempo, which helped her relay her sense of humor to the audience. While Taylor was not the only one that used humor in her speech, I feel her delivery was the best out of the speakers that used this tactic.

Another common tactic in this year’s contest was to find one object to compare to the speaker’s values. One contestant compared her values to a fly wheel, while another compared theirs to a basic physics lesson. The speaker that I found to use this tactic was Vinnie Caroselli. In his speech, he talked about being from a poor household and reaching for an opportunity to get out of that situation. Vinnie used the analogy of a crab trap and the stress of leaving your community to find a better opportunity in life.

This analogy of crabs in a trap is a comparison of what it feels like to claw your way to the top. It leaves the audience with a sense of grit and guilt. What Vinnie then said is that this feeling was normal and that it was important to continue on your own personal journey of growth and personal development.

All in all, I felt that Taylor and Vinnie had the best speeches because of their content and delivery. I felt that they were relatable and truly down to earth speeches. Nothing about them seemed staged or fake at all. I believe that this is what helped them to win the prizes they won. This is not to be interpreted as disrespectful to the other contestants; I feel that all the speeches were well crafted and strong, however I feel that they lacked a sense of compassion with their speeches. They seemed to be missing that wholesome feeling, the very one that Taylor and Vinnie thrived on.

This year’s Bailey might have been the best I have experienced in my four years at Juniata College due to the fact that both the contestants and their speeches were based on personal value rather than statistics or research. Everything that was said the night of the event was from the hearts of each one of the speakers.

The Bailey Oratorical contest is one of Juniata’s oldest traditions for good reason. It is an event that is purely made to better both the student body and the communities that the students come in contact with both while at Juniata and away from the college. It is an event that changes outlooks on life and the lives that we all lead. I could not imagine the Juniata community and the surrounding area without the Bailey Oratorical contest.

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