Neela Cole, a junior multimedia journalism major from Huntsville, Alabama, is the winner of this year’s Troy University Intramural Speech Tournament and a $500 scholarship.
Organized by the Hall School of Journalism and Communication, the tournament was held on Wednesday in the Library’s media room. Participants had three to five minutes to give an informative or persuasive speech that also included their original work and used at least one source.
Cole delivered an informative speech titled “Overcoming a Challenge” that centered around her experience with bacterial meningitis as a child that left her with permanent hearing loss. In her speech, she spoke about how her hearing loss impacts her life, receiving her cochlear implant and gave facts and statistics about bacterial meningitis.
“My hearing deficit is a challenge I’ve overcome and continued to overcome,” she said. “That was the message I wanted to convey, and also why I didn’t want it to be a persuasive speech—I wanted it to be an encouragement to others.”
Today, Cole is the Writing Editor for the Palladium, the Trojan Living Section Editor for the Tropolitan, a camera operator and communications intern with TROY Athletics, secondary contact for Men’s Tennis and student video assistant for TROY Football.
“It’s a lot, but I’m very grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had,” she said. “I feel like God placed this in my life because He knows where I’m trying to go and is aligning His will with mine. I continue to go for what I’m passionate about and what I enjoy.”
This is Cole’s third speech competition, placing first in the Informative Division in 2024 and First Runner Up in 2025. Over the last three years, she said she’s learned to work on her speed when speaking and maintaining eye contact with the audience.
“I encourage anyone who wants to participate in the Speech Tournament to do it,” she said. “Whether you win the money or not, whether there’s a lot of people in the room or just one individual, go after it because it helps with your communication skills and public speaking.”
Four finalists were selected for this final round of competition. Abhishek Subedi was named First Runner Up, Linda Hoetsch was named Second Runner Up and Ayla Jones was Third Runner Up.
Subedi gave a persuasive speech about reconsidering our frequent use of cellphones, and Hoetsch gave a persuasive speech about life paths using the comparison of axels in ice skating versus twizzles in ice dancing. Jones also gave a persuasive speech discussing female beauty standards and how they’ve changed over the eras.
