The Irvine Valley College Forensics Team wins two national titles
The Irvine Valley College Forensics Team shows awards from March 23-25 Tournament. (Courtesy of Irvine Valley College Forensics)
Irvine Valley College’s Speech and Debate Team won two national titles at a tournament that took place March 23 to the 25 at the University of Pacific.
The speech and debate team of 20 students and 10 coaches were awarded the titles “2013 National Champion of Two Year College Tournament Sweepstakes” and “2013 National Champion of Two Year College Season Sweepstakes.”
The tournament was held by the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) in which both two-year and four-year colleges attended.
According to the NPDA’s official website IVC was awarded the “National Champion of Two Year College Season Sweepstakes” based on the team’s 121.42 cumulative points they received from a combination of four tournaments.
Amongst the 197 two-year and four-year colleges that attended, the team placed sixth overall.
“We teach public speaking here differently than anybody in the country,” Forensics Coach Gary Rybold said. “Which means doing a lot more speeches, having a lot more small groups and getting a lot more student engagement.”
Rybold attributes much of the team’s success to the numerous amounts of practice each student receives in the program.
The coaches yearn for all students’ communication skills to improve as well as their overall personnel.
“We focus on life skills,” Director of IVC’s Forensics Edwin Tiongson said. “It’s about presenting them [the students] and putting themselves out there, in such a way where an audience is wowed, the judges are wowed. Basically they are able to communicate with meaning, able to communicate with certainty, to be an empowered speaker.”
The team is currently preparing for their next national tournament, Phi Roh Pi that will take place April 16 through the 20 in Woodland Hills, Calif..
According to Rybold, approximately 500 students and 80 community colleges will be attending. The Phi Roh Pi tournament includes solely community colleges in which a variety of speeches and debates will be performed; impromptu, readers’ interpretation, readers’ theater and speeches students have worked on and prepared all semester.
Irvine Valley College’s awards from March 23-25 Tournament. (Courtsey of Irvine Valley College Forensics.)