Speech winner calls for local engagement with issue of mass incarceration

Anyone can engage with peacebuilding and reclaim their power to work for change by learning how mass incarceration impacts their communities. This is the encouragement shared by Naomi Lapp Klassen, winner of the 2025 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest, administered by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

A 2025 graduate of Goshen (Indiana) College, Lapp Klassen described her experiences of studying the U.S. criminal legal system and mass incarceration as she pursued her degrees in history and criminal and restorative justice.

In her speech, “Engaging with mass incarceration: seeking agency and sight,” Lapp Klassen detailed the day she accompanied a local police officer on a shift. She also talked about what she learned as she took a college course with people who were incarcerated. Through these and other experiences, she learned about the effects of mass incarceration in her community.

By getting more connected to the issue of incarceration, Lapp Klassen said she now feels more empowered to make change. She encourages others to do the same. Most importantly, she argues, we can be present in places within our own communities where we can listen to the concerns and perspectives of those directly affected by mass incarceration.

She also acknowledges how difficult it is to be a peacemaker. Being a part of peacebuilding, she said, “often feels impossible since we are constantly bombarded with news of so many crises, so much suffering, that our attention and empathy are in desperately low supply.”

The C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest is an annual, binational and intercollegiate contest for students at Anabaptist colleges and universities, and is administered by MCC U.S. The purpose of the contest is to deepen students’ thinking about peace and create a platform for discussion of peace-related themes. 

Lapp Klassen will receive a $500 cash award and a $500 scholarship to attend a peace conference of her choice. A video of her speech is available at “Engaging with Mass Incarceration: Seeking Agency and Sight”, Naomi Lapp Klassen.

Rylee Weishaupt, from Hesston (Kansas) College, won second prize for her speech, “Don’t get yourself killed,” about her perspective on active nonviolence. Teena Faust, from Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, won third prize for her speech, “Not just a prayer,” which reflects on the biblical call for faith to be accompanied by action.

Six educational institutions participated in this year’s contest: Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas; Bluffton (Ohio) University; Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ontario; Goshen College; Hesston College; and Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas.

Established in 1974, this year’s contest marks its 51st anniversary and commemorates the late C. Henry Smith. A Mennonite historian and professor, Smith taught at Goshen College, Bluffton University and Bethel College, and was the first dean of Goshen College. Smith held deep interest in the Mennonite commitment to peace.

The judges for this year’s contest were Joanne Gallardo, conference minister of Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA; Robert Suderman, former general secretary of Mennonite Church Canada, and former Mennonite World Conference secretary and chair of its Peace Commission; and Saji Oommen, director for Global Engagement with Five & Two Network.

The opinions of the orators are their own, not necessarily those of MCC.