Speech & Debate Team Wins At AFA-NIET Nationals

The Speech & Debate Team just returned from the American Forensics Association-National Individual Events Tournament--one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year. Some highlights, from Director of Speech and Debate Aaron Duncan:

Overall, UNL placed 8th out of 83 schools. UNL was the top placing school in the Big Ten at the tournament. This is the 17th year consecutive year that UNL has placed in the top 20 at the AFA-NIET.

UNL advanced 12 events to outrounds (the top 24 advance in each event and event sizes range from 130-150 students), 4 of those events advanced to semi-finals and, three of those events advanced to finals.

Sophomores Jesse Sladky (Wahoo, NE) placed 6th overall in Communication Analysis and Josh Planos (Omaha, NE) placed 5th overall in Program Oral interpretation.

Senior Nick Herink capped off one of the strongest individual careers in UNL Speech & Debate history by WINNING the National Championship in Program Oral Interpretation. Senior Nick Herink placed 17th overall in Individual Sweepstakes (out of about 500 competitors). Prior to the start of the tournament senior Nick Herink was named to the AFA-NIET All-American Team.  Team members are chosen based on academic performance, community service, and success in speech and debate.

Watch Nick learn he has won the national championship below:

UNL Speech & Debate Follows Big 10 Championship with Nebraska State Championship!

The University of Nebraska - Lincoln’s speech and debate team were named the state champions this past weekend at the Nebraska Intercollegiate Forensic Association’s State Tournament, Feb. 18 hosted at the University of Nebraska - Kearney. This accomplishment is especially meaningful as the state fielded four of the nation’s top 20 teams in 2011.

UNL won the speech tournament with 123 points, the University of Nebraska-Omaha placed second with 109.5 points, and Hastings College placed third with 54.5 points. In addition to the team awards, UNL students captured a total of three individual state championships. Sophomore Grace Kluck of Lincoln won Program Oral Interpretation, sophomore Josh Planos of Omaha won Dramatic Interpretation and junior Patrick Sather of Bellevue won Prose Interpretation. In the pentathalon award, which recognizes individual students for a combined point total accrued throughout the tournament, junior Lauren Schaal of Omaha was third.

UNL placed second in the debate sweepstakes and won the overall speech and debate combined sweepstakes award for a fourth year in a row, a feat previously never achieved by a team in state tournament history.
The state championship marks the fourth consecutive victory for the UNL team this semester. The team is preparing to compete at the American Forensic Association - National Individual Events Tournament to be held at Texas State University - San Marcos, April 7-9.

--Aaron Duncan, Director of Speech & Debate

Congratulations to our newest Academic Star

Congratulations to Communication Studies major and William J. Seiler Undergraduate Leadership Award winner Emily Schlichting on being named an Academic Star. From the announcement:

On some level, it’s all very difficult to believe this is her life, Schlichting said. There’s something definitely to take away from it all: True passions in life don’t always start out as things you knew you cared about or loved. “The smallest actions lead to the biggest chain of events that you could ever imagine to occur,” she said. “It might not seem big at the time, but nothing big started out that way.”

Senator Nelson Congratulates Speech & Debate Team on Big 10 Championship

Thanks to Senator Ben Nelson for Skyping in to chat with the Big Ten Champion Speech & Debate Team. Senator Nelson disclosed that he was a high school debater--and he noted that he often wished that the debates on the floor of the Senate lived up to the debates he had as a high school debater!

Caption Contest #1

Introducing a new feature here on COMMPosts: caption contests!

Recently, Dr. Damien Pfister was elevated to new apple-picking heights by Dr. Jordan Soliz. Visual evidence below:

Propose a caption in the comments below!

Meet the 2011-2012 Department of Communication Studies!

Announcing the William J. Seiler Undergraduate Leadership Award