Illinois State’s Forensics Union is gearing up for what promises to be a challenging and exciting season. The team boasts approximately 40 members between speech and debate, a larger team than past years.
ISU’s team is a nationally recognized forensics team with 10 national team championships and over 80 individual titles in its history. Forensics at Illinois State offers Lincoln-Douglas policy debate as well as individual speaking events competition in interpretation, public speaking, and limited preparation genres. Being a part of the team provides members opportunities to travel across the nation and become eligible for partial tuition waivers and scholarships.
According to the Director of Forensics Megan Koch, “the forensics team members have set the goal of earning over 100 qualifications for National Forensics Association (NFA) Nationals in April.” Despite this high number, the team members are determined to maintain their focus on producing quality events, not just quantity. Competition has already begun, and a couple debate team members have already experienced success by qualifying for their national tournament.
According to Koch, ISU’s main competition will include Bradley University and Western Kentucky. Both of these schools have a greater financial advantage than Illinois State, but what the “forensics team lacks in financial support, we can match on quality,” promises Koch. The team is excited to see what other teams are working on and compete in an environment that is sure to be tough.
The high quality shown by members of the team is a direct result of strong, talented leadership. This year, the School of Communication welcomes three new graduate students: Rocky Roque, Micailiah Nobles, and Allen Carter. Roque is talented at Persuasion, After Dinner, and all types of Interpretation. Nobles is a gifted Interpretation and After Dinner coach and serves as the primary programmed event coach. Carter is focused on building ISU’s Limited Preparation events.
Share in our pride of the Illinois State Forensics Union by contributing to the Endowment for Forensics or our Restricted Foundation Account for Forensics. For more information regarding giving to Forensics, please visit their website.
Glad to see Forensics doing so well at ISU in 2019 and 2020. We had a great experience in the 1960’s with far fewer participants. Hope you have a great year!
Thank you for your support Ray!