Forensics Team Captain Wins Claude Pepper Oratory Contest

April 11, 2007

Mason junior and Forensics Team captain Chrissy Kendall is the newest national champion of the Claude Pepper Oratory Contest.

Kendall is majoring in psychology and Russian studies and minoring in dance.

In February, Kendall won the Mason campus contest and was selected by the Claude Pepper Center to compete against speakers from across the country for a $1,500 scholarship and the opportunity to address a committee of the U.S. Congress with the winning speech.

Each year, the Claude Pepper Center and the Claude Pepper Foundation host an oratory competition to award and recognize outstanding student orators. This year's competition garnered national attention as student orators considered a newsworthy topic: What should U.S. policy be toward Cuba, and what lessons from our history with Cuba can we apply to other areas of U.S. foreign policy?

On Tuesday, March 27, the same night Kendall was competing in Tallahassee, Fla., in the Claude Pepper contest, Mason’s award-winning Forensics Team was showcasing its entries for national competitions in the Johnson Center Cinema during the annual “Night of Stars” performance.

This article originally appeared in a slightly different form in CHSSconnection.

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