NOVA Forensics Team Shines at Nationals!

The NOVA Forensics Team has done it again! This week, NOVA sent a small but mighty delegation of students to the Phi Rho Pi National Forensic Tournament in St. Louis, Mo. for a week of engaging performances, tough competition and intellectual enrichment at the highest level.  

Forensics is a term used to describe intercollegiate competitive public speaking, debate, literature performance and acting performance. Each year, members of the award winning NOVA Forensics Team qualify to attend the Phi Rho Pi National Tournament based on their performance at smaller invitational tournaments that occur between the months of October and March. 

This year, the Phi Rho Pi National Tournament took place in St. Louis and featured 45 community colleges and over 900 student competitors. 

And the NOVA Forensics Team was small but mighty! With financial support from the NOVA Foundation and NOVA’s Office of Enrollment Management and Student Success, NOVA was able to send three students to Nationals. 

Spencer Salusky brought home a silver medal for a dramatic performance that told the story of the power of consent in relationships. Additionally, Spencer also won a bronze medal for his emotional performance of a short story that focused on how individuals cope with the loss of a loved one. Spencer’s persuasive speech about fairness in competitive forensics and his dramatic duo performance with Caroline Castagana about technology came close to advancing to an elimination round but just missed the cut!

Caroline Castagana competed in team debate, impromptu speaking, dramatic duo (with Spencer) and prose performance. Though her events missed elimination rounds by just a touch, she was honored with the Phi Rho Pi Student Fellowship Awards for demonstrating positivity and resiliency throughout the season, as she competed in three different categories of competition (debate, literature performance and public speaking) and was always helpful to others.

Dhyuthi (D.C.) Chegu competed in team debate, single 1-vs.-1 debate, impromptu speaking and extemporaneous speaking. D.C. brought home the bronze medal in single 1-vs-1 debate and did a great job, almost advancing to the Gold/Silver Medal Round in one of the largest events of the tournament!

This season, the NOVA Forensics Team was directed by Dr. Nathan Carter, CDEIO and students were coached by Associate Dean, Professor Jeremy Hodgson from the LASS Division on the AL Campus and Professor Amy Hileman (CST) from the LO Campus. 

We look forward to another great season of competitive Forensics next year!  If you have questions about the NOVA Forensics Team or when auditions will occur for next season please contact Dr. Nathan Carter, nacarter@nvcc.edu.

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