Dakota State University will host the 26th annual Karl E. Mundt Dakota Invitational Oral Interpretation Contest this Saturday, October 25. Over 200 students and nearly 50 judges from 21 South Dakota high schools will converge on the DSU campus Saturday morning for the contest.

Contestants will be performing in over 40 classrooms and labs all across campus in the Trojan Center, East Hall, Kennedy Center, Beadle Hall, Technology Classroom Building, Science Center, and Mundt Library.

Check-in and general meeting are in the Marketplace from 7:30 to 8:45.
Contest preliminary rounds will run from 8:45 to 12:15, with finals taking place across campus from 1:45 to 3:15. Presentation of awards will follow in the Mundt Foundation.

Students will compete in seven oral interpretation divisions: Humor, Drama, Prose, Poetry, Oratory, Duet, and Readers Theater. The Dakota Invitational offers all students three rounds of competition in the morning, followed by final rounds for the top scorers in the afternoon.
The tournament presents 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies to the best finishers in each division. Along with individual awards, schools also compete for team recognition in sweepstakes awards. The tournament recognizes the 1st and 2nd place teams in Class AA, A, and B based on the total points earned by their best speakers in each event.

For the second year, the top competitors will receive the "DSU-Dakota Invitational Scholarship Awards." Thanks to the generous support of the DSU Foundation, the first-place winner in each division will receive a $500 scholarship to DSU. In addition, the DSU Foundation will allot one $750 scholarship to each of first-place sweepstakes-winning teams in class. Students from each winning team will be able to apply for these competitive awards in the spring.

The Karl E. Mundt Dakota Invitational is sponsored by the DSU College of Arts and Sciences and supported with a grant from the Karl E. Mundt Foundation. The tournament is directed by DSU doctoral candidate Cory Allen Heidelberger and undergraduate student Brett Kearin.

Complete tournament information is available online:
http://www.students.dsu.edu/caheidelberger/DSUInterp/