Alumni Banquet Speakers

The Terry Foundation exclusively features Terry Scholar Alumni as the main speakers during the Fall Banquets and the Fall Virtual Alumni Gathering.

If you are interested in sharing some wisdom and insights with our community, please read the following guidelines carefully and submit the Banquet Speaker Form between August 1st and August 30th. You may save the information outlined on this page by downloading the Speaker Guidelines document below.

Speaker Guidelines

Goals for Speeches

Banquet speeches should inspire and motivate our Scholars.
To accommodate the diverse crowd at each event, we request that speeches not be political or religious in nature.
Speeches should be limited to 10 – 15 minutes.

Information Session Recording

The Foundation hosted a virtual information session to answer questions from Alumni who are interested in speaking at the Fall Banquets or at the Fall Virtual Alumni Gathering. We were joined by former speakers who shared about their positive experiences, strategies for brainstorming speech topics, and how to overcome feelings of self-doubt.

Watch Recording

To Complete the Speaker Form

Reference the full Banquet Schedule and determine your availability for all events. (Banquets are 5:00pm – 7:30pm local time; Virtual Alumni Gathering is 6pm -7pm CST)
Review the Speaker Guidelines and the list of suggested topics and prepare an outline of your proposed speech
Locate your Terry ID# in our Banquet Speaker Invitation Email or request your Terry ID# from Foundation staff.

Banquet Speaker Form

2024 Banquet Schedule

On-Campus Event Schedule

Reception 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Dinner and Program 6:00pm – 7:30pm

Week 1

Tuesday, October 8th – Texas State University (San Marcos, TX)

Wednesday, October 9th – UT Austin (Austin, TX)

Thursday, October 10th – UT San Antonio (San Antonio, TX)

Week 2

Monday, October 21st – Texas A&M University (College Station, TX)

Tuesday, October 22nd – University of Houston (Houston, TX)

Thursday, October 24th – UT El Paso (El Paso, TX)

Week 3

Monday, October 28th – UT Arlington (Arlington, TX)

Tuesday, October 29th – UT Dallas (Richardson, TX)

Wednesday, October 30th – Texas Woman’s University (Denton, TX)

Thursday, October 31st – University of North Texas (Denton, TX)

Week 4

Monday, November 4th – Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX)

Thursday, November 7th – Fall Virtual Alumni Gathering (Zoom)

Virtual Alumni Gathering Details

Event Details and Schedule

Thursday, November 7th

Casual event hosted on Zoom
Appearances by family members and pets welcomed

Foundation Update 6:00pm – 6:20pm CST
Featured Speaker 6:20pm – 6:30pm CST
Small Group Chats 6:30pm – 7:00pm CST

Speaker Recruitment Timeline

August 1st – August 30th
The Foundation will open the Alumni Banquet Speaker sign up form

August 30th to September 6th
The Foundation will contact potential speakers to request additional details, if necessary, and confirm speakers for the banquets and the Alumni Gathering.

Goal: all confirmed by September 9th.

September 10th Onward
The Foundation will work with each speaker to finalize their presentation and travel itinerary.

Required Speech Proposal

All potential speakers must present a speech proposal to the Foundation when they complete the signup form. All speech proposals must contain the following:

File saved with your first name and last name in the title (Microsoft Word Document or PDF).
Your name, Terry school, and Terry year at the top of the page.
A brief paragraph or outline of your speech’s main idea and why you chose your topic.

Your speech does not have to be completely finalized by the time you complete the sign-up form. The Foundation just needs a clear idea of what you would share at the banquet. If you are selected as a speaker, a Foundation representative will follow-up with you to confirm the specific details of your speech.

Potential Speech Topics

How are you making an impact on the world? Do you have a personal cause or initiative that you support? Do you have a unique profession? How did you know that this was the field for you?
Do you have stories to share about your profession? What was the path from undergrad to your current role? What has helped you along way? Do you have stories or advice from your development as a professional?
What is a hardship you faced during college and how did you overcome it?
Is your career path or profession different from what you thought it would be as an undergraduate student? What caused this shift, and do you have any advice for students who may be in a similar situation?
Do you have a memory about Mr. and Mrs. Terry or a story about an interaction you had with them? How did they influence the way you have developed as a professional or as a person in general? If you never had the chance to meet Mr. & Mrs. Terry, is there another Terry Scholar who impacted you or helped reinforce the feeling of being a part of the Terry community?
How did the Terry Foundation scholarship impact your future beyond graduation?
Do you have a story of resilience, or a lesson learned from life events?

Things to Consider

Speakers should bear in mind the fact that college students, like all Americans, have faced many challenges over the past few years. Our Terry Scholar community is very diverse at all campuses, with students coming from different areas of Texas, different backgrounds (race, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, etc.) and varying kinds of support systems.

Speakers should consider how their speech topics and remarks will be received by Scholars from all backgrounds and aim to be inclusive. Focus on the characteristics that all Terry Scholars have in common based on our selection process, which for over 35 years has resulted in a diverse background of highly driven and talented students who need help to accomplish their goals.