The Kent State University School of Communication Studies will host the Spring 2018 Hyde Park Forum on Tuesday, April 24 in the Kent Student Center Ballroom at 7 p.m.
The event is an opportunity for students enrolled in the Introduction to Human Communication course to participate in a speech competition in front of an audience of peers, family and faculty. Judges rate students' performances to designate first, second, third and honorable mentions.
The forum will pit three students from the Fall 2017 semester against three students enrolled in the course this semester. The top three Fall 2017 qualifiers and their speech topics are Alexa Kwiatkowski, Sustainability in Fashion; Javon Miller, Basic Income Guarantee; and Rachel Eldering, Meditation.
The forum attracts an audience of about 900 people who then cast their votes to select the winner of the "Audience Choice Award."
This year’s Hyde Park Forum judges are:
- Robin Clark, APR, director of marketing at Akron Children’s Hospital. She directs advertising and marketing strategies to develop compelling messaging to grow the brand’s strength and sales.
- Tamara Frazier, 2017 Hyde Park Forum champion. Frazier is an advertising student at Kent State University and is currently interning with Aramark as a marketing intern. She lives by the quote, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are usually the ones that do.”
- Barbara Hatala, APR, communications manager, Americas Operations at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. She has set strategy and managed million dollar budgets for the company, while influencing behavior and perceptions through strategic communication programs.
- Lamar Hylton, Ph.D., Dean of Students, Kent State University. Hylton previously served as assistant vice provost for student life in the office for student affairs at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He is a first-generation college student and received his bachelor’s degree in vocal music-performance from Morgan State University before attending Ohio University for his master’s in college student personnel. He went on to obtain his doctorate in higher education administration from Morgan State.
- Mr. Ned Parks, Toastmaster extraordinaire, founder of Aegis360 Consulting and New Directions Learning & Development, a global provider of business consulting services. He also authored the book The Simple & Easy Manager: What Managers Need to Know Before They Need to Know It.
Kent State University’s School of Communication Studies has undergraduate degree programs with concentrations in organizational, applied, public, global, interpersonal and health communication. Graduate programs include master’s degrees in global, health, mediated/mass and interpersonal communication.
