Las Positas College Forensics Team Scores Big at International Championships

LIVERMORE, CA: The Las Positas College "Talk Halks" forensic team made its mark at the International Forensics Association (IFA) Tournament held in Vienna, Austria earlier this month. The team competed against 15 other teams, and, when the dust finally settled, LPC finished in first place amongst all two-year institutions, and second place overall!

"We are extremely proud of our team's performance at the international competition, where they demonstrated great skill and poise and served as excellent ambassadors for our school and our nation," according to LPC President Dr. Barry Russell. Tim Heisler, the proud director of the LPC forensics program, noted that this is LPC's eighth year of participation in the international event. He added that the previous seven tournaments brought home two international champions while this year the team won four events and added five new national champions to its roster in one single competition.

The students paid their own travel expenses to make the trip, which also included an opportunity to tour Vienna for three days. During this time, they went to the opera, heard a performance of music by Mozart, perhaps the country's most famous native son, and visited neighboring Slovakia.

Students winning individual awards were:

Castro Valley:

Phillip Bannister

International Champion-Duo Interpretation

4th Place-Informative Speaking

7th Place-Poetry Interpretation

Jennie De Rose

International Champion-Prose Interpretation

6th Place-Persuasive Speaking

Kimbria Mitchell

5th Place-Dramatic Interpretation

Vincent Walker

International Champion-Informative Speaking

3rd Place-Dramatic Interpretation

6th Place-Poetry Interpretation

Livermore:

Katelyn Harper

International Champion-Duo Interpretation

7th Place-Speech to Entertain

Erin McQueen

3rd Place-Dramatic Interpretation

6th Place-Poetry Interpretation

Pleasanton:

Danielle Leedeman

International Champion-Speech to Entertain

3rd Place-Rhetorical Criticism

The Forensics program is the official designation for the Las Positas College Speech Team. This academically competitive program travels locally, nationally and internationally to compete at tournaments throughout the year. The Forensics program started at LPC in 1975 and is currently the top speech team in Northern California.

Announcement, photo submitted by Las Positas College