For the forensics team, spring is a time to celebrate the end of the season and to begin searching for new students to fill its ranks, replacing graduating students.

“We’re looking for people who are verbal and well informed, and like to read the newspaper, follow current events, and who are just flat out smart people. Any combination of those attributes would be great,” coach Francesca Bishop said.

As a program that has been on campus for decades, the forensics team has built its reputation as a club for outspoken individuals with academic drive; traits that must go hand-in-hand to do well.

Members must give up five weekends per semester to attend tournaments and take the 1-unit 3-hour a week class in addition to doing research and preparation for at least an hour each day.

“It all depends on how dedicated you are; you can put in as much or as little time as you want, but the more you put in the better you’ll probably do,” Corey Turpin said.

Despite few units and many hours of preparation and research, students tend to stay until they graduate; seven students from this season will stay with the team next year.

Unlike some other teams, the forensic team prides itself for being a close-knit group.

“Our team is probably the most united team out there,” Turpin said “Some of the other teams have real hate for each other but we get along really well; we hang out at the tournaments and take classes together and go out to dinner.”

Last year, every student on the team graduating from EC was accepted to UC schools. This does not come as much of a surprise to Bishop, who said that affiliation with a forensics program is probably the No. 1 extracurricular activity that universities value when accepting transfer students.

Many of the team members who have already graduated have moved on to graduate school, and currently there are students who have been accepted to and are attending law school now.

“It’s about having an opinion and being able to support it, which is a great skill, and there’s plenty of people who have that and debate would be wonderful for them,” Bishop said.

Besides looking for potential teammates on campus, the forensic team is looking to high schools as well.

On May 21 the team is holding a recruitment tournament where students from Torrance high schools and other cities are invited to debate.

Bishop is teaching basic speech class during summer school and suggests that students joining the forensic team take Speech 4, which focuses on argumentation and debate.

Students may contact Bishop at [email protected] or by phone at (310) 660-6000 anytime through the summer.