There is a new team at Loyola making quite the impression in the community. Loyola's Forensics Society, a combination of a mock trial team and speech and debate team, earned the third place title for a team award in last weekend's debate tournament on Saturday, September 26th at Towson University and Sunday, September 27th with the Southern Northern Atlantic Forensics Association. With only ten entries, or members of the team, this was quite the impressive feat for a young team in its second year.
President of the Forensics Society and Captain of the Speech and Debate Team, Kristian Monroe, along with teammate Jeff Parsons, came in 4th place in the Duo Interpretation segment of the weekend's action, followed by Vice-President and co-captain of the mock trial team, Christopher Geckle, who placed 4th in Novice Extemporaneous Speaking. Among other Loyola victories include Shanika Jayakody who won the first place title for Novice Poetry Interpretation.
The team earned their victories through thorough preparation, which starts about a week before the tournament. General research is done beforehand in order to familiarize the team with current events and different topics of discussion. These include foreign affairs and politics. So far 138 countries have been researched by the team.
Though most events are individual, once the topic is given at the tournament, each member is given thirty minutes to pull together a speech and perform before the panel of judges. The tournament is broken up into different events, including current events, impromptu, poetry interpretations, and extemporaneous speaking. Some events, such as poetry interpretation, are researched and prepared in advanced, then performed at the tournament.
Generally there are two preliminary rounds where the participant is judged and graded. Each participant is judged by a panel of judges who give scores based on how well one speaks, poise, respect for other participants, overall correctness and accuracy, how well one performed, and academic integrity. The final round is comprised of six members who usually have to come in first place in the previous two rounds in order to make in to the final round. The participants are judged again on their performance, and the winner is then named.
Loyola's team competes against other competitive schools on the east coast including Cornell, Suffolk, George Mason University, and James Madison University. The new team, only in its second year, attributes its success to administration and parent support, not to mention the hard work and dedication of the team members themselves. For those who are interested in joining, the Forensics Society meets during the week on Monday and Wednesday for the debate section at 8pm in Sellinger 201, and Tuesday for the mock trial section at 8pm in Sellinger 201. All are invited to join and participate in what is the first academically competitive organization on campus.
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