2021 Bailey Oratorical
This was my first-time attending Juniata’s Bailey Oratorical and overall, I was thoroughly impressed by everyone’s speeches. Due to covid, the event was on zoom this year, but Juniata did a great job with the camera work making sure everything ran smoothly. The audio quality on my end was great because I personally thought that the audio was going to be messed up the entire time. Every one of the speakers seemed very calm, confident and prepared. I don’t believe one student messed up to where the audience would even know it. The topic was the year 2020, which had a lot of hardships. So, I was assuming that everyone was going to have similar speeches, but to my surprise, everyone’s speech targeted a different aspect.
My top three speeches out of the entire Bailey Oratorical were Brandi’s, Jessie’s, and Rohan’s. What I liked about all of them as a whole was that each student really targeted a specific part of 2020 that was either difficult or a life lesson for them. Brandi’s main argument was arguing that America’s healthcare system is racist and how people of color are not treated the same within the health field. Her scientific speech had lots of facts, which I’m not surprised about because her POE is Bio Chem. After Juniata, she would like to become a doctor to make sure that people have fair treatment because everyone deserves it. Jessie’s speech discusses how 2020 was filled with “background noise” and that there was an increase in mental health problems by 40%. I related to this speech the most because she discussed being grateful for having a job during this time even though it’s very straining on your body. I am very lucky that my mother was still able to work throughout this time, but every day she went to work made me nervous because she’s older, works in a retirement home, and is always around a lot of people. In my opinion, Jessie spoke the best. She was very confident, and I was really moved by this speech. If her speech was twice or three times as long, I would’ve listened to it.
The speech that I thought should’ve won was Rohan’s. I’m not saying this because he’s in two of my classes, but I already was engaged with his speech in the first 30 seconds. I felt like I imagined what he saw when he was explaining his past summer here in Huntingdon. I was excited to hear what he said next about slipping on the ice because I was very confused about where his speech was going in the beginning. By the end, it all came full circle, and the metaphor made a lot of sense with his story. How he’s lived in the US for three years now and that life is very different all over the world. Rohan probably looked down at his speech either three or four times it was very impressive. As a viewer you could tell that he really cared what he was talking about, there was no faking it. Even though Rohan didn’t get any of the top three positions he won People’s Choice. Which I think is the best award because his speech created such an impact on the audience. Even though Jules’s speech was not my favorite personally I applaud the emotion that was put into that speech. I believed that it moved a lot of people watching, especially the judges.
A lot of time and dedication was put into this year's Bailey Oratorical by not only the speakers, but by the people who were coordinating the actual event. It’s nice to know that in a time of need, hardship, and anger that there are many people in this world that will come together as one. Not only did this year’s Bailey show hope for years to come, but also showed Juniata that we are a strong community that has many talented and bright students. I would love for the 2022 Bailey Oratorical to be in person.
