EDMOND—Eight Herbert W. Armstrong College students delivered carefully crafted speeches to fellow students, faculty and guests on February 22 in the John Amos Field House at the college’s annual speech banquet. Topics ranged from entertaining personal experiences to lessons derived from corporations to inspirational stories.

In “I Should Have Just Walked,” freshman Johnathan Mansour shared how he learned to speak up after getting his head stuck in an electric door and yet still being too shy to yell for help.

In “Miraculous Moments,” sophomore Timothy Guenther spoke about a near-fatal car accident and divine intervention that has occurred in the lives of God’s people.

In “Lessons From a Giant,” senior Anthony Chibarirwe highlighted personal lessons that can be taken from the business strategy of Google.

In “The Limited Ferrari,” senior Ben Young spoke about the capacity of the human mind and how the conscious mind’s limited access to that information facilitates building character.

In “A New You,” junior Danielle Underwood told members of the audience that they can change themselves by sharing the example of how her mother overcame shyness.

“The more I got into the speech, the more I realized how far-reaching the principles that she used were, so I knew I needed to give it,” Underwood said.

In “Magnum Opus,” senior Abraham Blondeau gave a jocular rendition of lessons from attending AC, including, “Don’t wear children’s-size T-shirts” and “Don’t use dish soap in the washing machine.”

In “The Soldier,” sophomore Brandi Davis spoke about her great-grandfather who fought at D-Day in 1944, joined the Worldwide Church of God in the late 1960s, and then the Philadelphia Church of God in the 1990s.

In “Only Two,” junior Michael Cocomise spoke about Austin Hatch, who came back from a coma and inability to walk to play basketball for the University of Michigan.

“We heard a wonderful range from our speakers,” homiletics instructor Joel Hilliker said, “from gut-busting funny to deeply moving.”

Freshman speech instructor Roger Brandon presented the speeches. Into the introductions for each speaker, he threaded the theme, “A Tribute to Sir Winston Churchill,” a motif that also appeared in table decorations of felt top hats, white flowers and polka-dot bow ties.

The speech banquet stems from a tradition at Ambassador College and has been one of the annual events at Herbert W. Armstrong College since its second year in 2003.

Speakers competed with 20 other candidates in “speak offs” the previous week. Mr. Hilliker and other speech or theology instructors and assistants selected the eight speakers for the evening. In the interim, one instructor worked with each speaker to polish his or her speech for the night.

“Learning is one thing, communicating is another,” Mr. Hilliker said, “The speech banquet gives you a peek at the teachers of tomorrow.”