logo

BGSU Falcon Forensics Team Beats Harvard

BGSU Falcon Forensics Team Beats Harvard

October 29, 2013

(October 25-26, 2013) The Falcon Forensics Team continued their successful season with a first place team finish at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts, topping Harvard University and 9 other teams by over 120 points. Among the challengers were George Mason University, Suffolk University, Emerson College, the University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette University, St. Anselm College, Bridgewater State University, Cornell University and Harvard University. BGSU took a team of 15 students, with a combined total of 62 events (speeches and interpretive performances).  Of these 62 entries, the Falcons brought home finalist placements in 37 events, their highest success rate of the season.

 

Leading the Falcons to victory were Jamie Salazar (Junior, Texas), Spencer Coile (Junior, Illinois), Gilbert Bauman-Flores (Sophomore, Texas) and Evan Kelly (Freshman, Illinois) with four finals placements each. Each BGSU team member placed at least one event in final rounds and each event had at least two Falcons earning placement within the top 6 at the tournament.  Top placements included first place championship finishes from Evan Kelly in Impromptu Speaking, Alexis Martinez (Junior, Texas) in Persuasive Speaking, Gilbert Bauman Flores in Poetry Interpretation, Arrielle Hudgies (Senior, Ohio) in Dramatic Interpretation, Tricia Kushen (Freshman, Ohio) in Prose Interpretation, Gilbert Bauman-Flores & Arrielle Hudgies in Duo Interpretation and Rebecca Barth (Junior, Ohio) in Programmed Oral Interpretation. In forensics competition, the top 6 speakers per event receive awards, and in both Prose Interpretation and Dramatic Interpretation 5 of the top 6 speakers were from BGSU. In addition, the top 6 speakers qualify for national competition which takes place in April at host school, Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. This weekend, the Falcons qualified 37 events for nationals, bringing their total to 63 events qualified, placing BGSU among the top 10 teams in the nation, the equivalent of a basketball team making the sweet 16. The national championships are a huge honor, with over 100 universities qualifying and an additional 300 participating in invitational tournaments on the way to the championships.

 

“It is always an exceptional educational experience to challenge BGSU students up against some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the nation, and to emerge victorious. I am very proud of each team member for stepping up to this challenge.” Said Alday.  Individual student placements include:


 

Individual Events

PLACE EVENT BGSU TEAM MEMBER YEAR AT BGSU
1st place Prose Interpretation Tricia Kushen Freshman
2nd place Prose Interpretation Brooke Deck Freshman
3rd place Prose Interpretation Gilbert Bauman-Flores Sophomore
5th place Prose Interpretation Abby Zerull Freshman
6th place Prose Interpretation Blake Altman Sophomore
1st place Program Oral Interpretation Rebecca Barth Junior
2nd place Program Oral Interpretation Tricia Kushen Freshman
3rd place After Dinner Speaking Christopher Stack Junior
5th place After Dinner Speaking Blake Altman Sophomore
6th place After Dinner Speaking Gilbert Bauman-Flores Sophomore
2nd place Extemporaneous Speaking Evan Kelly Freshman
6th place Extemporaneous Speaking Jamie Salazar Junior
1st place Impromptu Speaking Evan Kelly Freshman
4th place Impromptu Speaking Blake Altman Sophomore
6th place Impromptu Speaking Rebecca Barth Junior
2nd place Communication Analysis Ashley Hendricks Senior
4th place Communication Analysis Arrielle Hudgies Senior
5th place Communication Analysis Jamie Salazar Junior
1st place Dramatic Interpretation Arrielle Hudgies Senior
2nd place Dramatic Interpretation Jamie Salazar Junior
3rd place Dramatic Interpretation Abby Zerull Freshman
5th place Dramatic Interpretation Tricia Kushen Freshman
6th place Dramatic Interpretation Spencer Coile Junior
1st place DUO Interpretation Arrielle Hudgies/Gilbert Bauman-Flores Senior/Sophomore
3rd place DUO Interpretation Lindsay Bolding/Jamie Salazar Freshman/Junior
5th place DUO Interpretation Evan Kelly/Angela Perretta Freshman/Fresh
6th place DUO Interpretation Lexi Martinez/Spencer Coile Junior/Junior
1st place Poetry Interpretation Gilbert Bauman-Flores Sophomore
2nd place Poetry Interpretation Lexi Martinez Junior
4th place Poetry Interpretation Christopher Stack Junior
1st place Persuasive Speaking Lexi Martinez Junior
3rd place Persuasive Speaking Spencer Coile Junior (TIE)
3rd place Persuasive Speaking Christopher Stack Junior (TIE)
3rd place Informative Speaking Spencer Coile Junior
4th place Informative Speaking Brooke Deck Freshman
5th place Informative Speaking Jamie Salazar Junior
6th place Informative Speaking Evan Kelly Freshman

 

Team Sweepstakes

1st place                    Team Sweepstakes Award                                                                                           BGSU


 

“It is truly humbling to see the dedication and skill of these students.” said Alday.  In order to qualify for national competition, teams must participate in a series of tournaments starting in mid-September and lasting through early March, where students vie for final rankings that place them in the final rounds, earning their nationals qualification.  “This is particularly rewarding as 10 of the students representing BGSU are new recruits to the institution, starting their first year with the team.” said Alday. The team is headed next to the University of Michigan before hosting their homecoming tournament on November 16 and 17 on the main campus.

 

Forensics and Debate is a co-curricular, competitive program offered through the School of Media and Communication and Department of Communication, offering BGSU undergraduate students the opportunity to hone their communication and performance skills in competition with other colleges and universities from around the nation and globe.  For more information about forensics, speech or debate, please contact 372-8856 or BGSU4N6@ Yahoo.com.

 

Dr. Gajjala to speak at University of Illinios, Urbana-Champaign

Dr Gajjala has been invited to participate as an invited panelist at  the “Africa and IT” conference at Urbana-Champaign in September 2013. She will be on a panel (with Dr. Sharon Irish and Dr. Safiya Noble of UIUC) detailing the work she is doing as part of the “DOCC 2013” initiative led by Anne Balsamo and Alex Juhasz through “Femtechnet”. See press release for more on this.

During her visit to UIUC, she will also be giving a talk at the Institute for Communications Research at UIUC.

Mr. Cardenas received Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Faculty Seminar fellowship

Mr. Cardenas received 25th Annual Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Faculty Seminar fellowship.

Administered by the Television Academy Foundation’s Education Programs department, the Faculty Seminar offers college professors opportunities to see how television entertainment works behind the scenes.

 

Dr. Tom Mascaro wins the 2012 AEJMC Tankard Book Award

The Standing Committee on Research of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC), selected Into the Fray: How NBC’s Washington Documentary Unit Reinvented the News for this year’s Tankard Award from a group of three finalists that also included Women of the Washington Press: Politics, Prejudice, and Persistence, by Maurine H. Beasley, and Can Journalism Survive? An Inside Look at American Newsrooms, by David M. Ryfe. AEJMC Executive Director Jennifer McGill administers the book award competition, which recognizes the best book relevant to journalism and mass communication.

Dr. Tori Ekstrand (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), chaired the August 8 Tankard Book Award presentation at AEJMC’s annual convention of journalism scholars and media professionals at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. Dr. Ekstrand praised Into the Fray for its originality and extensive research in covering an overlooked part of journalism history.

Into the Fray, published by Potomac Books of Washington, D.C., is a band-of-brothers story of documentary journalism. As a biography of filmmaker Ted Yates and also the men and women that formed his unique documentary crew, Into the Fray traces how World War II values shaped the television documentary at the NBC News Washington Bureau from 1961 through 1967, when Ted Yates was killed during the outbreak of the Six-Day War. It also covers Washington, D.C. history as it relates to the formation of the NBC unit, including experiences of military veterans, minorities, and women in journalism.

A Journalism History review explains, “Mascaro provides a thorough perspective of the social and political context for each of the events the [NBC documentary] unit investigated.” Gateway Journalism Review characterizes Into the Fray as “a significant contribution to the history of broadcast journalism and the long-form documentary.” And American Journalism credits “the author’s ability to take us inside the process of documentary work, showing the complicated interplay between the people involved in the projects as well as the challenges and obstacles.”

Dr. Paula Poindexter, acting AEJMC president, explains the award honors the memory of her esteemed colleague, James William Tankard, Jr., Professor Emeritus in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Tankard was a popular, innovative professor and mentor who died in 2005. The Tankard Book Award has been issued annually since 2007.

Dr. Tom Mascaro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Telecommunications at the School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green (Ohio) State University. He is co-founder of the Broadcast Education Association Documentary Division. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Popular Film and Television, Journalism History, and American Journalism. Into the Fray is his first book and was based on numerous interviews with network documentary producers and filmmakers and extensive research at presidential and other national archives.

See www.aejmc.org for further information.

Arpan Yagnik named the recipient of the Shuck Award for International Students

International Student Services Scholarship Committee selected Arpan Yagnik as the recipient of Shuck Award for International Students. Arpan is a third year graduate student in the School of Media and Communication and is working towards his doctoral degree advised by Dr. Srinivas Melkote. The Shuck Award for International Students is awarded to an International student who has demonstrated commitment to the university, actively participated in BGSU’s international and intercultural activities, contributed in improving intercultural awareness and understanding, and shared his country and its culture with BGSU while maintaing a better than average GPA. The award comes with a $500 scholarship. Arpan is also the recipient of three other awards which are the Outstanding International Graduate Student Award, Falcon Top Ten Percent Award and Fisher Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Gajjala was invited to develop a featured panel for “The World Social Science Forum”

Dr. Radhika Gajjala (Professor, School of Media and Communication, joint-appointed with American Culture Studies program) was invited to develop a featured panel for “The World Social Science Forum” convention of 2013 (see http://www.wssf2013.org/). She, along with several others including a BGSU School of Media Communication Phd graduate Dr. Yeonju Oh (employed at Nanyang Technological University) are featured speakers on a panel that examines issues around “Care Technologies and the Labor of Caring” through critical feminist and political economy frameworks. Gajjala’s paper is entitled, “Automating Subaltern Labour: Circuits of Care and Capital” and Oh’s paper is entitled, “My Nanny is a Robot”.

Skip to toolbar