Howard Payne University’s speech and debate forensics team, Student Speaker Bureau, won third place overall in individual events at the Forum in the Forest competition hosted by Rice University. HPU competed against 17 other universities from Texas and New Mexico at their first tournament of the year, held at Lonestar College in Kingwood, Texas, on October 1-2.

Advancing to the quarterfinals from a field of 32 were the HPU debate teams of sophomore Jake Aschmutat, a political science major from Corpus Christi, and sophomore Kelley Miller, a political science major from Boyd, and the team of junior Raquel Spencer, a communication major from Fritch, and sophomore Ben Palmer, a liberal arts major from Van. Aschmutat won the fourth place Parliamentary Debate Speaker Award.

Four students advanced to finals in individual events. Junior Adam Hardy, a political science major from Corpus Christi, won third place in Prose Interpretation. In the Program Oral Interpretation category, Aschmutat placed third and freshman Tim Hardy, a political science major from Corpus Christi, placed fourth. Spencer was a semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking.

Other students who competed include freshman Jessica Ramirez, a liberal arts major from Bangs, freshman Ben Chambers, a liberal arts major from Derby, Kansas, and sophomore Kristen Simons, an English major from Bangs.

Student Speaker Bureau is under the direction of Dr. Julie Welker, professor of communication, Kim Bryant, associate professor of communication, and Elisha Nix, Brown County assistant attorney and volunteer coach.

“For our first tournament of the year we did a wonderful job,” said Dr. Welker. “We have a strong group of new freshmen to add to the returners on our squad, and I’m excited to see what the rest of the year holds.”

“It’s always great to see our students in the finals up against schools like The University of Texas and Rice University,” she continued. “Our HPU speech and debate students are some of the best in the nation, and it’s great to have that confirmed in competitions.”

The Student Speaker Bureau’s next tournament is the Texas Intercollegiate Forensics Association Fall Championships to be held at San Jacinto College November 5-6.

Photo contributed by Dr. Julie Welker: (left to right) Ben Palmer, Robert Davis (student coach), Jessica Ramirez, Ben Chambers, Raquel Spencer, Tim Hardy, Jake Aschmutat, Kelley Miller, Adam Hardy, Kristen Simons and SSB coach Dr. Julie Welker.