Bay College is excited to announce the kick-off to the 2025 commencement speaker competition for this year’s graduation ceremony.
Students are asked to write a speech to deliver at Bay College’s 2025 graduation May 10th. All speeches should be between four to five minutes long when read aloud and should specifically address new Bay College graduates. All speeches are expected to be considerate and responsive to the sensitivities of general audiences.
To enter, a student must submit his or her speech in document form by April 1st, to Dr. Renee Strom, Arts & Letters faculty member, via email: renee.strom@baycollege.edu. Each entry must include the student’s full name, contact email, and telephone number. All entrants must be eligible to graduate by Summer 2025, have applied for graduation, and be planning to participate in commencement.
Once all submissions have been considered, finalists will be contacted by Dr. Strom to deliver their speech[es] to the commencement speaker committee on April 15th.
The winner of the competition will receive $100 and will be part of the graduation ceremony and will get VIP seating for family near the stage. The second-place winner will receive $50.
Following are some suggestions for students planning to enter the contest:
- Commencement is a formal ceremony. As such, a formal greeting is appropriate to start the speech. The correct order of the greeting is as follows: “Members of the Board of Trustees, President Hughes, faculty, staff, families, guests, and my fellow graduates.”
- The speech should be presented at the competition in as polished a manner as possible. The judges will be considering several factors in making their selection, including the following:
- Is the speech appropriate to the occasion and audience?
- Is the content well organized, interesting, and one that captures the student experience or viewpoint?
- Is the speech well delivered?
- Is the speech inclusive enough to represent all of the graduates even though it may be from the perspective of a traditional or nontraditional student?
- Is the speech fresh and memorable even though it may follow the traditional (but not required) “fond look back/challenge for the future” format of most of the past student graduation speeches?
- Is the speech four to five minutes long?
- Does the speaker reflect positively on the College?
Questions can be directed to Renee Strom by telephone, 906-217-4131, or via email.