On Friday, April 25, five students took the center stage for the 29th Annual Lancaster Public Speaking Tournament’s final round. With the many topics that were covered, each student had a prepared speech focusing on the controversial topic of “beauty.”

This year’s winner, Elena Salcido, commanded the stage and entertained the audience with her opinion on the beauty of lying; she won $700, and the title of this year’s Lancaster Public Speaking Tournament.

“Public speaking is, in my opinion, much easier when you’re talking about something you’re really passionate about,” Salcido said.

With 230 students starting out the tournament, the odds were narrowed to sixteen, before the final five were chosen. Jennifer Cruz, Sanna Forsen, Anna Logan, Gustavo Perez and Elena Salcido, were finalists in this year’s tournament and all members of the Communication Department.

The first place award of $700, second place of $500, third place of $300, and the two finalists with $100 each, were sponsored by Union Bank.

Debuting for the first time, the Lancaster Public Speaking Tournament introduced the use of audience participation voting via smart phones.  The audience had to download any free QR Code reading application and scan the code on the back of the distributed programs.

The audience’s votes counted for 10 percent of the final count.

This year’s topic of beauty didn’t leave the audience with simple talks about pretty faces.

With no traditional views of beauty covered, the audience was inspired by everything form anti-makeup empowerment, by Anna Logan, to one student’s opinion on the nation’s education’s potential beauty, by Gustavo Perez.

Salcido’s speech dove into the provoking topic on “why lying can be a potentially beautiful thing.”

“Simply put, lies just help us get through the day,” Salcido said.

In her speech, a statistic by Pamela Meyer was used, saying, on any given day an individual is lied to from 10 to 200 times.

Salcido persuaded the audience with her eloquent words that all that lying may be nothing but a flattering intention to create happiness, even though synthetic.

“Lying can have a positive and often beautiful side,” said Salcido. “We’re all lying together, for each other.”

The winner’s earnings are going to be saved while Salcido takes time to pursue a career of Press Secretary after this encouraging competition.