The BSU Forensic Team won ten awards at two tournaments last weekend. East coast schools including Cornell University, George Mason University, Ithaca College, Suffolk University, Emerson College, and a number of others competed at Emerson on Saturday in the Rose Swing Tournament. Sunday, the squad competed at Suffolk University in the Northeast Regional Championship Tournament.
The BSU Team is comprised completely of novices, with several students having competed in their first intercollegiate competition.
Saturday at Emerson, BSU won the following Awards:
-Persuasive Speaking – First Place – Katie McCaffrey
-Informative Speaking – Third Place – Kassandra Goncalves
-Oral Interpretation of Prose – Third Place - Jake Toole
-Team Award – Fifth Place for the above students and Natalee Webb and Lorenz Marcellus
At the Northeast Regional Championships at Suffolk on Sunday, there were awards for:
-Northeast Regional Champion in Persuasion and Massachusetts Champion– Katie McCaffery
-Persuasive Speaking – Second Place – Katie McCaffery
-Northeast Regional Champion in Informative Speaking – Kassandra Goncalves
-Informative Speaking – Fourth Place – Kassandra Goncalves
-Persuasive Speaking – Sixth Place – Rachael Ng
-Team Award – Fifth Place with the above students and Lorenz Marcellus
Dr. Susan Miskelly of communication studies serves as director of forensics.
The BSU team next travels to Pi Kappa Delta, national forensic honorary, at Boise State University, held March 21 to 26. Bridgewater will be one of 72 colleges and universities from across the country competing in a variety of events.
As Massachusetts Persuasive Champion, Katie McCaffrey qualified to compete in the oldest speech contest in United States, the Interstate Oratorical Contest. The contest is limited to the top two persuasive speakers from each state. The students compete and have their speeches published in a book, “Winning Orations.”
This year’s contest will be held at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette between April 20-22, 2017.