Bailey Oratorical (blog post 6)
Bailey Oratorical 2024
Last night I attended the 114th Bailey Oratorical. The Bailey is one of Juniata’s longest-standing and most beloved traditions. This is a public speaking contest that is open to any and all students and offers a $1,000 cash prize for the first-place winner. This year’s prompt reads: A modern conception of health urges us to consider that it is not merely the absence of disease. With this understanding, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched “Healthy People 2030” to identify priorities for addressing the conditions where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect quality of life.
The topics of this year’s third-place speech addressed the need for proper sexual education earlier in a child’s life, more consistently as individuals enter different stages in their life and a more accurate and true depiction of this. Gillian Cunningham, a junior and first-time Bailey speaker, brought these points up and a plethora of other powerful and eye-opening firsthand experiences, paired with statistical data to earn herself the third-place prize of $500.
I very much enjoyed this speech and felt connected to it in a way. My high school requires one semester of health class upon graduation. I grew up in a very small town, in rural Pennsylvania (there are as many enrolled in Juniata as residents where I live), and my Phys. Ed. teacher was also my health teacher, who was also the middle school football and boys’ basketball coach- that’s how things worked in my school. To say that he was unqualified for this position, was an understatement. He was uninterested in any of the physical content other than the diet and drugs chapter. And I also want to add that he made many, many young girls, and even a few boys uncomfortable with his wandering eye and his inappropriate humor. But the blame for my lack of true sexual education and understanding of how my body and the bodies around me work might not be solely his fault, the blame needs to find its way to the route. I think that Gill’s speech was well-written, well-rehearsed, and executed well.
Another speech I loved was from Lillian Case- but I might be slightly biased since she’s my best friend. Her speech covered the importance of communities having a third place, a social setting aside from work and home where you can connect with others. She brought rise to the alarming statistical rates of loneliness and separation in my generation, Gen Z, and upwards. A solution for individuals and communities, that has been there all along, is libraries. Libraries often offer free programs, host community events, and provide resources like printers, along with access to education through text, and most importantly free internet. With the Statton Learning Commons only being open for about a month, it is remarkable to see the impact that it has already had on the students, staff, and even community members. Individuals are talking to other students they might not have before, they are more inclined to leave their rooms and go meet friends, and grab coffee, and now with access to an additional area to study, students are more motivated to work through assignments. Lillian spoke through her speech that communities are currently not healthy and we cannot be healthy if we are not connected.
The last speech I was to address, was presented by the last speaker, and the only man, might I add, Dan Cummins. Dan won first place this year, rightfully so. He opened his dialogue up posing a question, (not word for word I’m sorry) “What if I told you each of us in this room has an addiction?” This speech was relevant, transformative, inspiring, and educational, and eight minutes of full memorization. That addiction he was talking about was not to any drug/ substance or food or gambling but to our cell phones. Dan dropped a statistic in his speech that throughout our lives, assuming around a 70-year lifespan, we will have wasted just shy of 10 years of our lives. Think about that.
The other remaining speeches mentioned topics of slowing down to be present in one’s community and lead a healthier lifestyle, to removing the stigma and language around body image and the tole that beauty standards have on one’s mental health, to understanding that POC and those in low-income communities face a lack of representation and a lack of accessible health care, and to calling upon the Juniata community to foster an environment that flourishes on connection and creativity.
Overall, it was a very educational, and entertaining night and I am proud of my friends who participated as well as all who, deservingly, received awards.
