Continuing a successful speech forensics program, PCC student Elizabeth Cristales won the 2008 Community College Forensics Association State Championship in Communication Analysis.She led the way for four other top placing students in the five-day competition. Her accomplishments add on to those students who have won top spots in three out of the last four years.
Cristales started at PCC with a major in nursing. While taking a basic speech class, her teacher Stephanie Fleming, who is also the speech and debate program co-director, persuaded her to join the forensics team. When Cristales first started, she was afraid of public speaking until she got over her fear. Joining the team in her second semester, she got hooked on the program.
According to the champion and the program co-director, the forensics program is a great confidence booster enriching the students’ lives with challenging and rewarding competitions.
Cristales won the state champion title by addressing the use of racial and ethnic stereotypes from the Read a Book campaign currently airing on BET. She then went on to place second in informative speaking about the Svalbard Global Seed Fault in Norway.
David Mende and Lammont Webb earned a bronze medal along with Cristales in the Prose Interpretation competition, which as a dramatic interpretation of a short story has students portraying the feelings of an author’s characters.
Benji Perez won third place in Impromptu-speaking and Nolan Pack also won bronze in the Lincoln-Douglas Parliamentary Debate. Others who represented PCC were Aaron Oropeza, Adam Perez, Carlos Hall, Jason Sharkey, Julie Mansker and Wallis Locke.
Looking ahead to the national tournament April 12-20 in Chicago, eight forensics team members will be competing for the national champion title and sweepstakes awards, which PCC has won twice in the last four years.
Communication analysis champion Cristales is looking forward to the national competition, saying “it’s exciting, being with all these kids as talented as you are. It’s a weird feeling having high confidence that you can do good, but knowing you are competing against students as good as you are.”
All of the eight students heading to Chicago have earned awards throughout the year including competitions with both community colleges and four-year universities. This will be a first national competition for all of them. They have high hopes for getting national recognition as they compete against students from all over the country.
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