NOVA’s Forensics Team Wins at Nationals!

The NOVA Forensics Team had a spectacular finish to the 2020-21 competitive season! With most intercollegiate speech and debate tournaments held virtually, students on the NOVA Forensics Team worked from home to deliver informative speeches, persuasive speeches and powerful performances of prose, poetry and drama that willed the team to national acclaim once again!

This year, students on the NOVA Forensics Team made it through a grueling tryout process in the fall semester, countless hours of practices, weekly team meetings and several regional tournaments before qualifying to represent NOVA and attend two premier national speech and debate tournaments. Here are the latest results!

First, the NOVA Forensics Team won its first ever National Speech Championship (NSC) in the Community College Division! The National Speech Championship (NSC) occurred March 19-March 20, in a virtual format. In an unprecedented showing, every single NOVA student who attended the National Speech Championship advanced at least one of their events to a quarterfinal or semi-final elimination round! The team was comprised of mostly new students who had never seen tough college competition before. As Dr. Nathan Carter, director of the NOVA Forensics Team noted, “That feat alone is amazing and a great sign that there is a bright future for NOVA Forensics moving forward.” By winning the Community College Division Title, NOVA further escalated its reputation as one of the best programs in the country!

Second, students on the NOVA Forensics Team entered the Phi Rho Pi National Tournament! The Phi Rho Pi National Tournament is the largest community college speech and debate tournament in the country! In total, 63 community colleges attended with over 750 participants! The tournament occurred virtually, April 6 through April 11. Once again, the NOVA Forensics Team emerged victorious! NOVA students took home multiple bronze medals in Prose performance, Mixed Literature performance, and Dramatic performance! Their collective effort was enough to earn not only individual medals but also the Silver Medal in Team Sweepstakes (Individual Events) and missed the Bronze Medal in Team Sweepstakes by only half a point!

“You really have to be amazed by the resiliency of this team,” Carter said. “Most of our students and coaches come from minoritized backgrounds. Like so many in the world, they were reeling from the impacts of the pandemic and the state of our country. Yet still, they found a way to perform at a high level. Budgets were cut and coaches had to learn new ways to teach students. Yet still, they did the unthinkable and won a national title! The team was not able to meet in person and had to work under tremendous pressure. Yet still, your NOVA Nighthawk Forensic Team had unprecedented success! They are all class acts. We should all be proud of their efforts.”

As this year comes to a close, the NOVA Forensics Team looks forward to another competitive season next year. For more information about the NOVA Forensics Team please contact Dr. Nathan Carter, nacarter@nvcc.edu . Additionally, be on the lookout for our exciting May Showcase Event where students on the team will perform live for anyone to watch! Details coming soon!

The NOVA Forensics Team is coached by Professor Jeremy Hodgson (AL), Professor Amy Hileman (LO) as well as NOVA alumni: Roma Diseati, Brigitte Chavez and Rachel Clark. Students on the 2020-21 NOVA Forensics Team included: Marisol Vasquez, Denny Martinez, Cara Hillocks, Courtney Petco, Dani Briosos, Leah Ican, Layan Abdalla and A.M. Anderson.

Submitted by:
Dr. Nathan Carter, CDEIO, NACarter@nvcc.edu