Bluffton University student Emily Huxman, from Waterloo, Ontario, has won this year’s binational C. Henry Smith Oratorical Contest.

Her first-place effort earned Huxman, now a Bluffton junior, a $300 cash prize and a scholarship of up to $500 to attend a peace-related conference or seminar.

In the event, which is open to students in Mennonite and Brethren in Christ colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, participants present speeches that apply the Christian peace position to contemporary concerns.

In her speech, “Reducing Global Violence against Women through Education,” Huxman shared her passion for reducing global violence toward women through education and empowerment. She told three stories of how women are overcoming both physical and psychological violence through education. She also urged support of organizations like buildOn that are involved in building schools in developing countries, and advocated for sponsoring the education of young girls through organizations such as the Malala Fund and Compassion International.

Huxman won the Bluffton competition with her speech in March, earning $175 and a spot in the intercollegiate contest. She became the first Bluffton student to place first at the binational level since 2002; in recent years, Bluffton representatives Katie Wineland and Mary Schrag were second and third, respectively, in 2012 and 2014.

Judging the 2015 speeches from students at seven participating institutions were a faculty member from Eastern Mennonite University and representatives from Mennonite Church USA and the Ottawa, Ontario, office of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

Administered by MCC U.S., the contest was established in 1974 in honor of the late C. Henry Smith, a Mennonite historian and a professor at Bluffton and at Goshen College.