More than 20 members of the El Camino College Forensics Team participated in the Crossman Invitational debate tournament, with students taking home multiple awards, including first place, in individual categories Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12.
Almost 200 Students from 19 two- and four-year colleges and universities competed in the event, which was held on the El Camino College campus.
“We host this every year, so I organize it along with my assistant director, whose name is Brittany Hubble,” Francesca Bishop, director of forensics and professor of communication studies at ECC, said.
Most students came from California colleges like UC Santa Barbara and Concordia University, Irvine, with a few students from Arizona, including Grand Canyon University and Northern Arizona University.
“It’s one tournament, but there’s many events happening,” Bishop said.
On Saturday, there were two events happening. On Sunday, there were 12 events happening.
“There’s basically debate events where you argue a topic that you’re given 20 minutes before the round starts and it changes every round,” Bishop said. “And then, there’s speech events where solo speakers practice specific events like persuasive speaking or impromptu speaking.”
There are two types of debates. One type is National Parliamentary Debate Association, or NPDA, which is a two-on-two debate event. The other type is the International Public Debate Association, or IPDA, which is a one-on-one event.
The headquarters for the Crossman Invitational was located in the Social Sciences Building near Redondo Beach Boulevard. However, students competed in events in 60 rooms across campus, located in the Humanities Building and the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building as well.
The tournament began at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and lasted until the evening, ending in an awards ceremony at the Haag Recital Hall in the Music Building.
Aaron Orellana, a 19-year-old political science major from El Camino College, said that the experience gained in the forensics tournament will help his academic and professional goals.
“I feel like as someone who wants to be like, a lawyer for marginalized communities, specifically like immigrants, I feel like this will help me kind of fit into that scene,” Orellana said.
Several students wore business attire as if they were going to work or court. They moved from classroom to classroom in a hurry. There were breaks, allowing them to gather, relax and socialize.
“My goal is to go to law school after I graduate, so it’s helping me a lot,” Atticus Gonzalez, a 20-year-old data science major from UC Santa Barbara, said. “I’m doing IPDA, so it’s one-on-one debates, and it’s just teaching me, one, how to think more on my feet … to come up with coherent logical arguments fairly quickly.”
Janiel Victorino, a judge for the Crossman Invitational who used to compete in the college circuit for forensics, said she judges debate competitions to “give back to the college community.”
“Forensics helps students by having the training to disseminate the news,” she said. “Emotional regulation … understand different viewpoints … being able to just absorb a lot more different levels of information.”
- Nia Gordon – 1st Place, Open Impromptu Speaking; 2nd Place, Open Extemporaneous Speaking
- Abigail Morey – 2nd Place, Open Impromptu Speaking; 3rd Place, Open Extemporaneous Speaking
- Zaynah Robb – 1st Place, Open Extemporaneous Speaking
- Ashley Singh – Finalist, Open Impromptu Speaking
- Mehra Ziatabari – Finalist, Open Impromptu Speaking and Extemporaneous Speaking
- David Khashchuk – 1st Place, Novice Extemporaneous Speaking; Finalist, Novice Impromptu Speaking
- Jessie Weiser – 2nd Place, Novice Extemporaneous Speaking
- Adrian Luna – Finalist, Novice Extemporaneous Speaking
- Ali Saqebi – Finalist, Novice Extemporaneous Speaking
- Jocelyn Coenmans – Finalist, Novice Extemporaneous Speaking
- Zion Kandel – Finalist, Impromptu Speaking
- Aleena Ahmed – Finalist, Impromptu Speaking
- Cat Conroy – Finalist, Impromptu Speaking
Debate Events
- Zaynah Robb – Bronze Medalist, Open IPDA
- Alec Lyons – Silver Medalist, Open IPDA
- Alec Lyons & Abigail Morey – Silver Medalists, Open NPDA
- Ashley Singh & Nia Gordon – Bronze Medalists, Open NPDA
- Nia Gordon also placed 7th Overall open Speaker
- Adrian Luna & Ali Saqebi – Silver Medalists, Novice NPDA
- Jessie Weiser & Jocelyn Coenmans – Silver Medalists, Novice NPDA
- Jessie Weiser also placed 2nd Overall novice Speaker; Jocelyn Coenmans placed 4th Overall novice Speaker
- Cat Conroy & Joaquin Escarcega – Silver Medalists, Novice NPDA
- Cat Conroy placed 6th Overall novice Speaker; Joaquin Escarcega placed 10th Overall novice Speaker
- Abdul Sheriff & Aaron Orellana – Bronze Medalists, Novice NPDA
- Jackson Martin – 9th Overall Speaker, Novice Division
Editor’s note:
- Links were added and a broken link was fixed Saturday, Oct. 25
