Mark Asfar, Law’17 (Artsci’14), has taken home the Grand Prize, along with its $1,000 reward, for the 75th Annual Andrina McCulloch Public Speaking Competition. The finals of the Queen’s-wide event, hosted by the School of Drama and Music and the Student Life Centre, occurred on November 12 and saw Asfar win over six other finalists.

Asfar got started early with public speaking. He won a regional competition when he was in junior high and joined the Queen’s Debating Union while completing an undergraduate degree in history. “I ended up spending four years going to debate practice twice a week and spent most of my weekends out of town competing at various tournaments,” he says. “I loved the challenge of arguing with brilliant people in a compelling way so debate became my passion.”

“Somewhere in this period I saw the Andrina McCulloch Public Speaking competition being offered and gave it a try,” he continues. “I had competed in this competition twice before and placed as a finalist both times but this was my first time taking first place (and my last chance to do so!).”

During the competition Asfar had to deliver a prepared compulsory speech on how TV ads reflect differences between Canadians and Americans. “This speech was particularly challenging because it had inconsistent lexical choices,” Asfar explains. “It swapped expressions like ‘audience’ and ‘target’ or flipped references to ‘Canadians’ and ‘Americans.’ Still, it was fun to deliver.”

He then chose to give impromptu speeches instead of an original prepared speech. “Part of the reason for this is that it is a lot harder and more time-consuming to prepare a second memorized speech, especially when there are legal readings to get through each day. However, I also prefer the impromptu topics because of my background in debate. I am used to developing interesting arguments on the fly and here I just had to work with the prompts and respond to the audience’s reactions. I also really got to have fun with my final impromptu topic: Bell-bottom pants are going to make a comeback.”

Public speaking is useful in a broad range of settings in the legal profession according to Asfar. Last year, he was a mooter on the Queen’s team for the national Mathews Dinsdale and Clark Labour Arbitration Competition and he is currently on the executive team for the student-run Minute Moot Club. 

His skills, he says, also come into play in unexpected circumstances. “I think public speaking translates into being comfortable with communicating in any situation or environment. It was incredibly helpful when I volunteered with Queen’s Legal Aid and had to speak to clients one-on-one about their legal situation and it also came in handy when I summered at Momentum Law in Ottawa and got to join its team for client meetings or sponsored events.”

Asfar will be heading back there to article after he completes his JD degree. “I am excited to return to the one-on-one client interactions that are at the heart of the legal practice, and see what comes next!”

By Anthony Pugh