Educating the future
Many teachers encourage students to express themselves, but few have as much fun doing so as those who teach speech, theatre, debate and forensics.
Speech/Theatre Education
Start your future in speech/theatre education.
Program Highlights
Creative Teaching
Kids say the darnedest things. Especially creative high-school kids standing on a stage, and you get to teach, coach, and guide them through what is likely their favorite subject. Some people have all the luck.
Special Honors
Graduates of the speech and theatre program at Friends University will be able to teach speech or theatre content courses, coach debate and forensics competitive events, and direct, supervise and manage theatre productions.
Preparing Future Teachers
The coursework required for the speech/theatre education program at Friends University prepares students to be speech communication and theatre arts teachers at the high-school level.
Student Teaching Opportunities
This four-year program includes student teaching at the secondary level during the fall or spring semester of the student’s senior year.
Meeting Requirements
Other requirements include admittance into the teacher education program and a cumulative, education and content GPA 2.75 no “D” grades in the major or content areas. The combination of selected courses in education, speech, theatre and mass media allow students to meet appropriate KSDE state standards and requirements.
Licensed to Teach
Graduates are licensed to teach by the state of Kansas after successfully completing the degree and passing the Principles of Learning and Teaching Exam (PLT) and a content test.
Career Services
Helpful career guidance. The base salary for a BS/BA level beginning teacher with no experience for the local district (USD 259, Wichita) is $43,654 with a full range of benefits that typically include sick leave, health insurance, flex spending accounts, retirement, etc.
Featured Faculty
Laurie Dove
- Mass Media
- Fine Arts
Dr. Nathanael May
- Professor of Music; Tim & Gail Buchanan Division Chair of Fine Arts
- Fine Arts
- B.M. Piano Performance, University of Wisconsin –Whitewater; M.M. Performance and Literature, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester; D.M.A. Performance and Literature, University of Kansas
Lori Moshier
- Assistant Professor of Education; Lead Faculty Secondary Education
- Education
- Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education, Wichita State University; Master of Education in Teaching and Learning, Friends University; Doctor of Education in Technology and Leadership from William Howard Taft University
Dr. Charles Parker
- Speech
- Fine Arts
- B.A., Harding University; M.A. Harding School of Theology; M.A., University of Memphis; Ph.D., SIU-Carbondale
Niomi Thompson
- Speech
- Fine Arts
- Wichita State University