Concluding a season of performances, six members of the Baker University forensics team competed in a national competition held at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich. The competition was held from March 7-10.

Senior LaTasha Roberts received an “excellent” ranking for her performance in an inaugural event, held to honor American Indians. The competition required Roberts to participate in three different rounds presenting an impromptu speech, an oral interpretation and a prepared speech. Roberts said she learned about the culture in her preparation for the event, especially in working on a speech about American Indian leader Chief Seattle.

“In preparation for my informative speech I learned about the efforts he made to better the lives of Native Americans in Washington and how our culture can change things to make things more pleasant for ourselves,” Roberts said. “Chief Seattle gave a speech to the people of Washington, and the speech was changed to be more pleasant for a movie.”

Forensics coach Susan Emel said the size of the competition was good exposure for the members of the team.

“It was a very good trip and a good trip for students to see performances from around the country,” Emel said. “There is a little bit of regionalism (in regular-season competition), so this gives people a lot of exposure.”

Junior Steve Lovelady said he appreciated getting the experience he did with such a large competition.

“I think we all did pretty well,” Lovelady said. “There was a lot of stiff competition. We’ve improved in our (individual) events, and overall we did pretty well.

The competition was hosted by Pi Kappa Delta, a forensics honor society. Lovelady and junior Ashley Schmidt were also recently recognized by the society for their high grade point averages, tournament attendance and community service.