ABOUT THE CONTEST
The annual Jody Deering Nyquist Speech Contest is named after the former UW professor and administrator. By showcasing some of the best speech and argumentation at UW, the contest honors Dr. Nyquist’s commitment to education and civic engagement.
Annually, the top speeches in UW’s public speaking courses are nominated for the contest. The finalists are judged by a panel of UW speech alumni.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
2024
The 2024 speech contest recognized the best speakers from all sections of COM 220: Introduction to Public Speaking from the 23-24 academic year. Each section nominated one speech. After a preliminary round, the final speeches were judged by our professional speech consultant panel.
1st place. Onyedikachukwu Peters. Advocacy speech in support of the Color of Change Hollywood
2nd place. Beau Lonnquist. Commemorative speech praising Dr. David Baker
3rd place. Isabelle Sauter. Commemorative speech praising Open Strokes Rowing Club
Other top finalists
Makenna Schwab. Commemorative speech praising Seattle Children’s Hospital
Alex Ball. Advocacy speech in support of the U-District Food Bank.
Rich Mamiya. Advocacy speech in support of HeforShe
Cassie Diamond. Commemorative speech praising the ACLU
Aryan Verma. Advocacy speech in support of the Video Game History Foundation
All speeches are available here.
Judging panel
Lizzie Docel. Founder, Unscripted Speech. Public Speaking and Communication Coach, Google.
Mary Luken Raz (UW, 2020). Marketing Manager, Ackley Brands.
Bronwyn Hogenson (UW, 2020). Marketing Manager, Salesforce.
2023
In 2023, the contest was open to all UW undergraduates. Students submitted speeches in response to the theme: Who is a great public speaker? Students could talk about well-known figures from history or someone who may not be widely recognized, but whose oratory skills have left a lasting impact on them
1st place (tie). Jamie Christensen
1st place (tie). Liana Wu
2nd place. Grant Sanderson
3rd place. Ryan Carroll
Judging panel
Megan Braun, Marketing Manager, Amazon Go
Karli Casto, Founding Principal at pilotED Schools
2022
In 2022, the contest was open to all UW undergraduates. Students submitted speeches in response to the theme: What lessons should UW learn from the COVID pandemic? The theme allows for a wide range of ideas about how the UW community should plan for a post-pandemic era.
1st place. Kaitlyn Laibe
2nd place. Jamie Christiansen
3rd place (tie). Jaelyn Sotelo
3rd place (tie). Liana Wu
Judging panel
Judy Kimball, Vice President of Marketing at GLG
Evan Seguirant, Senior recruiting manager, Twitter
2021
1st Olivia Knoll. Olivia performed a ceremonial speech praising the efforts of the Purple Period of Crying campaign to prevent infant head trauma.
1st Evan Whitmeyer. Evan provided an illuminating ceremonial speech on Benjamin Franklin.
2nd Angelina Kuan. Angelina argued persuasively about the need for policy action in securing abortion access in developing countries.
Hannah Zaini. Hannah argued in support of the Trevor Project and their efforts to ban sexual conversion therapy.
Helena Burk. Argued for policy action against the tampon tax by supporting efforts of Period Equity.
Brielle Bush. Brielle argued for increased
Judging panel
Clara Manahan, Communications Director and Policy Advisor to Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles at King County Council
Stephanie Gero Dahlstrom, an Associate Attorney at Montgomery Purdue PLLC.
2020
Suspended due to COVID-19
2019
1st place. Noah Whitman. Ceremonial speech for my father.
2nd place. Kristine Nichols. Advocating for the Center for Reproductive Rights
3rd place. Darren Lee. Honoring the 442nd Infantry Regiment
Drew Locknane. Advocacy for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN)
Baylee Harding. Praising Seattle Children’s Hospital
Brianna Cho. Commemorating Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Judging panel
Victoria Broehm, Director of Communications at American Feed Industry Association.
Emma Brown, Manager of Communications and Marketing at Washington State Dental Association.
Elizabeth Woolf, Analyst at Pivot Point Consulting
2018
1st place. Griffin Dugan. Advocating for the National Domestic Abuse Hotline.
2nd place. Diana Catinas. Advocating to ban “life without parole” for juvenile offenders.
3rd place. Satvik Agarwal. Advocating for increased support for the U.N.’s World Food Programme.
Ivan Trindev. Commemorating the work of the Relay for Life.
Samantha Sun. Speech commemorating Elon Musk.
Pharady Chea. Speech commemorating her father
Judging panel
Mikayla Hall, Internal Content Manager and Copy Editor at House Republican Conference.
Danish Dhamani, Co-founder of the public speaking app, Orai.
Maddy Epstein, Senior Account Executive at WE Communications.
2017
1st place. Yaling Vu. Ceremonial speech praising Memorial Day.
1st place. Elizabeth Woolf. Advocacy speech urging support for ROOTS Young Adult Shelter.
2nd place. Lindsey Bullock. Impromptu speech arguing against quarterly advising meetings.
Matthew Lincoln. Advocacy speech urging support for 350.org to fight climate
Louis Tigh. Impromptu speech arguing for mandatory 10-minute lecture breaks.
Li-Kai Wu. Ceremonial speech praising Steven Spielberg.
Judging panel
Sandy Malone. PEMCO; Toastmasters Governor District 2.
Ashley Walls. Microsoft.
Bryce Ellis. Democracy Now!