By Lily Yengle ‘13
Photo courtesy of Zoe Staum ‘14
Our future politicians, broadcast journalists, and actors are getting practice—and recognition—at the Forensics team’s annual national championship tournament.
Last week, the team traveled to West Virginia to perform and argue in a competition attended by 80 other school forensic clubs, and they held their own.
Five of the students participated in Lincoln Douglas Debates. Named after the famous series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for the Illinois senate, the forensic version involves a 45-minute, one-on-one debate. This year the debate was about U.S. agriculture policy.
Five out of the eight competitors from Lafayette made it to a national out round: first years Noah Breininger, Vanessa Milan, and Joe Rothschild were in the top 32, and Ryan Monahan ‘15 and Zoe Staum ‘14 were top four semi-finalists.
Though each member earns points individually, the team is ranked depending on the sum of these points. Lafayette’s team placed second.
The night before the competition, five members of the Forensics Team rehearsed in a performance in Kirby Hall. AngelaWnek ‘13 performed a persuasive essay, which earned her a position as a top 12 semi-finalist at the competition. Wnekdelivered the essay she researched, wrote, and memorized on the current problematic state of affairs in Haiti.
“We must fulfill the promises we made in 2010,” she argued, referring to the flood of aid following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Besides delivering shocking facts (she cited the Guardian and Huffington Post about the Cholera epidemic, government corruption, and grossly misdirected funds), the essay is intended to inspire the audience to act, so Wnekfocused on a manageable, specific issue—hygiene.
Wnek has taken the initiative to create and pass out tote bags that read “Speaking about Soap,” along with running collection bins for hygiene products around campus to encourage the audience to participate.
Wnek just missed quarterfinals in prose, an especially fierce competition.
The team performed in other events, including an extemporaneous performance, where the competitor is told their speech topic and given half an hour to prepare a seven-minute speech on the topic. Interpretive event competitor Luke Wasacz ‘16 gave a dramatic and gut-wrenching performance as a high school video-gamer dealing with bullies, that earned him first place in the Pennsylvania state prose competition. Some of the team also competed in the impromptu platform, where the competitor has seven minutes to write and perform a speech based off a quotation.
Ryan Raesly ‘15 demonstrated his mastery of this category at the rehearsal performance when he constructed and delivered a speech based around the phrase “Monday is a terrible way to spend a seventh of your life.”