Alumni Banquet Speakers
The Terry Foundation will exclusively feature Terry Scholar Alumni as the main speakers during the Fall 2021 Banquets. We are also seeking a speaker for 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 by August 5, 2021.
You may save the information outlined on this page by downloading the Banquet Speaker Guidelines Document.
Banquet Speaker Form
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.
To complete the form, you will need to
– reference the full Banquet Schedule and determine your availability for all events (Banquets are 5:00pm – 7:30pm CST; Virtual Alumni Gathering is 6pm -7pm CST)
– review the list of suggested topics and prepare an outline of your proposed speech
2021 Banquet Schedule
- Reception 5pm – 6pm
- Dinner and Program 6pm – 7:30pm
| WEEK 1 |
| Texas A&M Galveston – Thursday, September 30th (Galveston, TX) |
| WEEK 2 |
| UT Austin – Monday, October 4th (Austin, TX) |
| Texas State University – Tuesday, October 5th (San Marcos, TX) |
| UT San Antonio – Wednesday, October 6th (San Antonio, TX) |
| UT El Paso – Thursday, October 7th (El Paso, TX) |
| WEEK 3 |
| Texas A&M University – Monday, October 11th (College Station) |
| Texas Tech University – Thursday, October 14th (Lubbock, TX) |
| WEEK 4 |
| UT Arlington – Monday, October 18th (Arlington, TX) |
| University of North Texas – Tuesday, October 19th (Denton, TX) |
| Texas Woman’s University – Wednesday, October 20th (Denton, TX) |
| UT Dallas – Thursday, October 21st (Richardson, TX) |
| WEEK 5 |
| Sam Houston State University – Monday, October 25th (Huntsville, TX) |
| University of Houston – Tuesday, October 26th (Houston, TX) |
| Fall Alumni Gathering – Thursday, October 28th (VIRTUAL) 6pm -7pm CST |
Speaker Recruitment Timeline
August 5th – August 25th
The Foundation will open the Alumni Banquet Speaker sign up form |
August 28th
Alumni Speaker proposals due. Alumni will provide availability for all banquets and rank preferences. |
August 30st to September 10th
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 10th. |
September 10th – September 29th
The Foundation will work with each speaker to finalize their presentation and travel itinerary.
Speakers will also be asked to submit a speaker bio and will also coordinate a time to submit a recording of their speech as a contingency option. |
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 recent events?
Back-Up Plan for Virtual Events
In the event that we are unable to have a large in-person event at any of our universities, the banquet will be moved to a virtual format on the same date (time may be adjusted without the meal). The Foundation will work with each speaker to prepare to make their remarks live via Zoom. Speakers will also be requested to pre-record their speech, so the Foundation will have an alternative in case of technical difficulties. Due to the uncertainty of planning during the pandemic, this change in format could happen as late as one week prior to the event.
Things to Consider
Program Updates
In 2020, the Foundation announced the cancellation of the Terry Transfer Scholarship Program and the termination of funding for any new Terry Scholarships at Texas A&M Galveston and Sam Houston State University. Speakers should keep these changes in mind when making their remarks, especially at TAMUG and SHSU. For 2021 there will remain about 50 Transfer Scholars out of a total census of 780 Scholars.
Diverse Audience
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 34 years has resulted in a diverse background of highly driven and talented students who need help to accomplish their goals.
Banquet Speaker Form
