Pacing back and forth, fiddling with papers and mouthing silent words, six students prepared to see whose speech would rise above the rest Monday.

The students competed in the 10th annual Betty Balasi Public Speaking Contest, hosted in the Lumpkin Hall Auditorium by the communication studies department.

The contest was open to students of any major who have taken CMN 1310: Introduction to Speech Communication or CMN 1390: Introduction to Speech Communication (Honors) during the summer or fall of 2012.

Each student had seven to nine minutes to present their speeches they had also submitted for a grade in class.

Prizes for winners were $500 for first place, $300 for second place and $100 for third place.

Dressed in a black pinstripe suit, a squared black bowtie and neon green tennis shoes, Christian Ilunga Matthiesen, a freshman business major, stood before an empty classroom practicing his speech before the competition.

While he was nervous about his speech on nonverbal communication, he said he was confident his nerves would help his performance.

“Of course you get nervous, and it keeps you on your toes,” he said.

Dawn Williams, a freshman mathematics major, said she had practiced her speech many times but was still nervous about presenting her speech on the portrayal of women in the media.

“I’m kind of nervous,” she said, dressed in a black pantsuit and turquoise heels. “Well, I take that back, I am very nervous right now.”

Lindsey Johnson, a sophomore special education major, said she had not intended on participating in the competition until her honors speech instructor, Rich Jones, encouraged her to compete.

“I didn’t think that I would even make it this far,” she said about entering her speech about the importance of Facebook for students.

Richard Jones, a communication studies faculty member and coordinator of competition, said he enjoys watching students prepare and practice their speeches before the competition.

“When you go to speech competitions, it is normal to see a bunch of people talking to themselves,” he said. “People find their own place to prep, which is fun to watch.”

Jones said seeing students take pride in their preparations and presenting their speeches with enthusiasm is encouraging to see.

Each student presented their speeches with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation before a crowd of nearly 70 students, faculty and staff.

After all the speeches had concluded and the judges handed their results to Jones, Johnson was awarded first place, Matthiesen second place and Lester Wang, a senior mathematics major, placed third for his speech on the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

“I was shocked,” Johnson said. “The other speeches were really, really well thought-out and executed well.”

She said she was honored to have won the competition and believes the skill of public speaking can help students in many ways.

“There’s going to be a lot of situations that you are going to be nervous in, especially as a teacher,” she said.

However, defeating nervous tendencies will be crucial to students’ success, she said.

Tim Deters can be reached at 581-2812 or tadeters@eiu.edu.