The Bradley University speech team’s (BUST) season is nearing its end, but it has been a massive success story.
Most recently, BUST took part in the American Forensics Association National Speech Tournament (AFA-NST) in Charlotte, NC, where they competed against teams across the nation.
Team members were involved in a variety of different performance categories, including persuasive and informative speech, public address, storytelling and even one involving limited preparation.
“Limited preps is where you go into the room not knowing what speech you’re about to give,” Oliver Sheaff, a sophomore animation major, said. “You get a prompt, and then you have to write a speech and give a speech right then and there.”
At AFA-NST, BUST took home numerous awards, with team President Rodrigo Trujillo winning top speaker.
“[Top speaker] is not just competing against every team; this is competing against every individual,” Sheaff said. “We are so proud that not only did one of us get it, but it was our team president, one of the seniors, someone we knew deserved it.”
Aside from earning awards, BUST has had an impact on its team members, providing them with valuable skills they can use in their future.
“The obvious glaring one is communication and the skill to be able to talk about everything,” Jacki Benfeldt, freshman English creative writing major, said. “It’s also a lot of teamwork, adaptability, problem solving: all the fun stuff.”
BUST’s final tournament is taking place in Detroit over the weekend, with the team looking to close their season on a high note.
“We spent a lot of time just reminding ourselves that this is the last time, and we all got here for a reason,” Benfeldt said. “It’s just about having fun at this point and celebrating all of our achievements.”
BUST is always looking for new people to join and encourages students to give it a shot, even if it’s not necessarily for them.
“We understand that it’s not for everyone, and we understand that it doesn’t fit in everyone’s schedule,” Sheaff said. “But if you just try it, we can promise you that we will give you the time of day to say what you want to say, say what you need to say and help you get better at saying it.”
Information on BUST and their upcoming tournament can be found on its Instagram.
