One of the lasting images from the Hays Speaking Contest 2026 came right after each speech. On Monday evening in the Norris Family Theater, as each of this year's ten finalists finished speaking and walked back to their row, they were hugged or ‘fist-bumped’ by other finalists, who had either just given their speech or were waiting to deliver it. Those nine other students – as well as Hays finalists from previous sophomore classes in attendance – were the only people in the building who knew exactly what the previous six to ten minutes had taken. That shared experience forms a bond.
2026 Hays Speaking Contest Program
When the final speaker took his seat and the applause ended, the rest of the audience came forward. Classmates descended first, followed by members of our professional community, filling the stage in front of where the finalists had been seated. While attendance is taken at this evening event for 9th and 10th-grade classes, the entire Proctor community shows up to witness what our sophomores are willing to share. Bravery comes in many forms, and each of this year's finalists found their own way to demonstrate theirs out loud.
The 2026 Hays Speaking Prize is in its twenty-seventh year. The brainchild of former trustee, parent, and English teacher John Pendleton, the prize honors former Proctor trustee and Bowdoin College debate team standout Bill Hays. It is not a standalone contest. Every sophomore writes and delivers a Hays speech as part of their English 10 American Literature course. Students draft, revise, and deliver an early version to classmates, who vote on which speeches move forward. The ten finalists who reach the Norris Family Theater stage arrive there with support from their English 10 teachers, advisors, and peers, and are judged by a small panel of faculty and community members – this year, Jo Brown, Angi Francesco, and Craig Churchill.
- Ando – Waters that Shaped Me
- Lizzie – The Power of Letting Go (Second Place)
- Liam – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Cuong – Leaving home: The International Student's Choice
- Val – Me and Mine, Addiction Reigns
- Anson – Hope
- Finley – Perfectionism and Quitting
- Willa – The Deconstruction of Fear (First Place – 2026 Hays Speaking Prize Winner)
- Jonathan – Breaking The Chain
- Nicole – Because We Are Human (Third Place)
Earlier this term, Head of School Amy Smucker shared an article from a recent issue of The Stanford Social Innovation Review with Proctor's professional community. In it, Stanford Accelerator for Learning Executive Director Isabelle Hau argues that the defining skill of the AI era may not be intelligence as we have measured it for the last century. She calls what is perhaps most important today is relational intelligence – RQ – the human capacity to build trust, navigate difference, repair ruptures, and create meaning with other people.
Hau documents what she calls a relational recession. Face-to-face socializing among teenagers fell by more than forty-five percent between 2003 and 2022. One in three teenagers now finds conversations with AI companions as satisfying as conversations with real-life friends. Into the spaces where human relationships used to live, algorithmic feeds, short-form video, and AI chatbots have rushed in. Hau's argument is that RQ is not a "nice-to-have," it is the foundation of human flourishing in the age of AI. And it depends on what she calls relational infrastructure – the intentional design of environments, schools, and communities designed for human connection.
Hau's article reinforces what we have long known at Proctor. Students and faculty live alongside one another on a 2,500-acre campus. Three times a week, the entire community gathers face-to-face in the Wilkins Meeting House for assembly and community building without screens. Students call their teachers by their first names. Every student has a faculty advisor whose job is to know – really know – and to walk with them through the ups and downs of adolescence. More than three-quarters of our students spend a trimester off campus with a small group of classmates and educators – immersive experiences that cannot be replicated through a screen. Our nineteen family-style dormitories feel more like homes than dormitory spaces. None of this is a reaction to the moment Hau describes; it is how Proctor has operated for generations.
The Hays Speaking Prize is one expression of relational infrastructure. In a culture that rewards polished short-form video and optimized feeds, the Hays asks a fifteen-year-old to stand on a stage and deliver a speech about a profoundly personal element of their life to a theater filled with people. They do it, and their peers, teachers, and the wider Proctor community celebrate and lift them up for doing so.
We cannot predict what the world will ask of the Class of 2028 when they graduate. We can guess, with reasonable confidence, that relational skills – the ability to connect with other humans, and to offer our full attention in return – will matter at least as much as any accomplishment from their high school years. Proctor is built to grow those skills over time.
Congratulations to this year's Hays Speaking Prize winners and finalists, and thank you to the Class of 2028 for your work in English classes this term. Thank you, too, to Tom Morgan and Amy Hubbard in the English Department for carrying on this important tradition.
Read More about Academics at Proctor
- Academics
- Community and Relationships
- Student Work