Public Speakers Qualify for National Forensics Tournament
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2002
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Public Speakers Qualify for National Forensics Tournament
The Public Speaking team at California State University, Chico, secured national competition spots for three top students at the National District qualifying Tournament held at Cypress Community College in Cypress, California over the weekend of March 9 and 10.
Rachel Hastings, Sarah Mills-Krutilek and Melinda McKelvy will compete in the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament April 5-8, at Bradley University in Peoria, IL. They will enter the following events:
Rachel Hastings: Poetry, Programmed Oral Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Prose Interpretation, and Dramatic Duo (with Melinda McKelvy).
Sarah Mills-Krutilek: Poetry, Programmed Oral Interpretation, and Dramatic Interpretation.
Melinda McKelvy: Dramatic Interpretation and Dramatic Duo (with Rachel Hastings).
“These three women are known throughout Northern California as the ‘Chico State hat trick.’ Each has performed stunningly well at all our regional tournaments as well as making their presence known at national tournaments,” said Kristina Schriver, faculty coach and adviser to the team.
The last CSU, Chico student to contend for a national championship was Ester Austin in 1996 at the AFA–NIE Tournament. Austin won both poetry and dramatic interpretation.
“Rachel Hastings’ performance over the last three years has been our foundation. This year she won a 3rd place individual sweepstakes award in our district. In other words, out of all the competitors in the state of California, only two other people earned their team more sweepstakes points,” said Schriver. ”As a senior, Rachel has a solid chance of winning a national competitive interpretation event.”
Public Speaking, as well as Speech and Debate, are instructionally related activities that stem from a class in communication arts and sciences. In the class, students learn the skills necessary to compete in tournaments. Schriver is both the director of the program and an instructor of the class.
The competitive speech season begins in late September and ends in early April. In the fall, the team traveled to CSU, Fresno, Santa Rosa Junior College, Arizona State University, Pepperdine, Bradley University, and Mt. San Antonio. This spring they traveled to CSU, Hayward, George Mason University in the D.C. area, CSU, Long Beach, and the District National Qualifying Tournament; they also hosted the Northern California Forensics Championship.
Chico State has been particularly strong this year. The team won the Northern California Forensics Championship sweepstakes award, given for the combined success of a team. This is a feat, said Schriver, that has eluded them for three straight years (they finished second behind Berkeley, SFSU, and Berkeley, respectively). At the national tournaments at George Mason, the team won the second place sweepstakes award.
Schriver has been a lecturer in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences and director of Forensics at CSU, Chico since fall 1998. Before arriving at CSU, Chico, she was the interim director of Forensics at Florida State.
Schriver will assume the position of assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences in the fall of 2002. As well as her duties as director of Forensics, Schriver teaches classes in gender and communication and argumentation as well as graduate seminars in qualitative research methods and feminist rhetorical theories.
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