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Jennifer Rusak, a first-year student from Ashley, Pa., helped lead the Lafayette Forensics Society to a first-place finish in the small-college division at the Ohio State University Holiday Frolic Tournament Dec. 1-2.
Rusak took second place in novice persuasive speaking and advanced to the quarter-final round of NFA (National Forensics Association) Lincoln-Douglas debate. Persuasion is a speech to convince, to move to action, or to inspire on a significant issue, delivered from memory, with a maximum time of 10 minutes. NFA Lincoln-Douglas is a one-person, persuasive, policy debate on traditional stock issues in which competitors are evaluated on their analysis, use of evidence, and ability to effectively and persuasively organize, deliver, and refute arguments.
Rusak also participated in varsity prose, in which contestants present a program of prose literature lasting not more than 10 minutes.
In outstanding performances leading up to the Ohio State competition, Rusak placed fourth in novice prose at West Chester University Oct. 14-15 and advanced to the quarter-finals in Lincoln-Douglas at Suffolk University Oct. 28-29.
“The Ohio State Tournament is truly a mammoth tournament,” says Scott Placke, Lafayette’s director of individual events. “Several of the top teams in the country attend. The competition we faced was very stiff. It was an important growing experience for the students to see some of the best competitors in the country.”
The tournament included representatives of more than 30 institutions, including three of the top six schools in the Open Sweepstakes division at the 2000 NFA national tournament held in April, Illinois State University, the champion; Miami University (Ohio), which placed third, and Ohio University, sixth.
Also competing for Lafayette were Jim Azarello ’03 (Stroudsburg, Pa.), Amy Carson ’02 (Pennington, N.J.), Rachel Korpanty ’04 (Summerville, S.C.), Brandt Siegel ’02 (Marysville, Ohio), Devan Theiler ’04 (Bridgewater, N.J.).
Carson and Siegel participated in Lincoln-Douglas along with Rusak. In individual events, Siegel participated in varsity extemporaneous speaking and Carson in novice extemporaneous speaking. In this event, contestants select one of three topics on current national and international events, then have 30 minutes to prepare a five to seven minute speech on the topic selected.
Azarello also was a contestant in novice impromptu speaking. Participants receive short excerpts dealing with items of general interest, political, economic, and social issues, then have seven minutes in which to prepare and deliver a talk of at least three minutes.
Theiler participated in novice informative speaking, in which contestants deliver from memory an original factual speech, no more than 10 minutes long, with or without visual aids, on a realistic subject to fulfill a general information need of the audience.
Azarello, Carson, and Korpanty participated in novice prose. Azarello and Korpanty were also contestants in novice poetry, in which participants present a program of poetic literature lasting not more than 10 minutes.
Pairings for dramatic duo were Azarello and Korpanty, Korpanty and Theiler, and Siegel and Theiler. In dramatic duo, two individuals present, without costumes or props, a cutting from a play, humorous or serious, involving the portrayal of two or more characters, lasting not more than 10 minutes.