El Camino College’s Forensics Team placed third out of 24 community colleges in the Pacific Southwest Collegiate Association Fall Championship Tournament at Mt. San Antonio College from Dec. 1 to 3.

Points are awarded to individuals or groups based on their performance and then added to the team’s overall total at the end of the event.

“It was a really good experience for the Forensics team, it was challenging and it was interesting to face off against four-year colleges and universities,” political science major and first-year Forensics team member Andres Osorio said. “It was a great way to learn about things such as global issues but to also further our speaking and listening skills as well.”

Director of Forensics Francesca Bishop said other teams had an advantage over El Camino in earning points because each respective program had more students competing in the event.

“We have a medium-sized program, so for us to place third was really good. It meant those students had to do exceptionally well,” Bishop said.

The championship was one of many the Forensics team participated in. Despite one of the fall competitions being canceled, they still have five competitions to attend after the end of the semester and into the spring 2024 semester.

“We have a lot of success with people coming to El Camino expressly because of the Forensics team,” Bishop said. “Last year we had nine people on the team graduate, every single one of them got into their top choice school, five or six went to UCLA or Berkeley, two went to [California State Universities] and one went to Yale.”

Bishop said the Forensics team does not require members to have any prior experience to join, one just needs to be kind, have a good attitude and be willing to learn valuable communication skills.

“After job skills, the thing that all employers look for is communication skills, if you join the Forensics team, whether you’re a [communications] major or not, you learn to communicate very well,” Bishop said.

The Forensics team plans to take six second-year members to an international competition in Dublin.

In the 2023 spring semester, members of the program traveled to Japan to compete in an international event for the first time.

Forensics team President Peter Moore won an outstanding speaker award at the championships. He said the team placed second in the Parliamentary Awards which are team debates where two or more members from one team face off against each other.

Moore said El Camino’s placement at the championships demonstrated the teamwork and focus members had against other national and international teams.

The team doesn’t concentrate on who the judge or opponent is, he said.

“They really focus on themselves and know that no matter what happens you are in control and you are the one who wins the round or loses the round,” Moore said. “Luckily for us, we do a lot of winning.”