Edward Everett Oratory Competition: Christopher Landers

We had the chance to catch up with Christopher Landers, the runner-up in the Edward Everett Oratory Competition. We asked him about his speech preparation methods, memorization strategy, activities on campus, and post-graduation plans. Here are his answers:

“I began researching and outlining in January over Christmas break. I had a final speech around the time the second semester began. Once it was memorized, I practiced once or twice a day the week before both the preliminary and final rounds. It was not difficult to memorize. When I was on the Hillsdale Speech team, I had multiple speeches memorized at once for competitions. Memorizing one speech was not a problem. I participated in competitive speech in high school and fell in love with the activity. I decided to continue at the college level out of a desire to compete against the very best in the country and further develop my public speaking skills. I was a member of the Hillsdale Speech Team my sophomore and junior years, but am not a member this year.

It certainly is an honor to compete in this competition. Hillsdale has many talented public speakers and advancing at any level of the competition is a testament to the speaker’s skill and dedication.

After I graduate, I plan on participating in a public policy fellowship in Washington, DC for the summer and ultimately work in public policy research.”

Watch Christopher’s speech here: