By Darla Martin Tucker

Assistant communication Professor Christine Law, a relative newcomer to La Sierra University, is leading speech and debate club students to consecutive victories, besting other Southern California colleges.

Under her direction, La Sierra communications major Adwoa Asamoah and business major Jonathan Finau took first place Sunday, April 27, in the Dramatic Duo division of the regional Cool Off tournament organized by the Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association. “Forensics,” a term commonly associated with police investigations, is also defined as the art of debate.

The association held two debate competitions on April 26 and 12 individual events on April 27 at Palomar College in San Marcos. All together, the competition attracted entries from 20 colleges and universities.

The Cool Off competition is aimed at beginning and lesser-experienced speech and debate contenders. Those more experienced in forensics aim for fall and spring regional championships hoping to qualify for national games.

Finau, a freshman, is involved in La Sierra’s Home Base ministries and Asamoah has been involved in many LSU dramatic productions. Finau participated last weekend as a rookie in his first speech competition. Asamoah is a novice speech contender who first competed during first and second quarters this year. She will contend next year as La Sierra’s first junior level competitor in prose and poem events. Finau will compete next year also, as a novice in prose and extemporaneous speech categories.

Last weekend’s win is the second in as many years for Law and her students. Business major and LSU Bible studies group organizer, Jeremy Salvador, took top prize in the extemporaneous speech category during the Cool Off tournament last April. He delivered his winning speech titled, “a life of service,” in response to the final round question, “What do you think is the best personal investment?” Salvador transferred this year to another college.

Asamoah and Finau competed against 16 contenders from three schools. After two nerve-wracking rounds and a final presentation, LSU beat out students from San Diego State University, Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut and Cypress College in Cypress.

The duo delivered a short dramatic reading from a play called “Sure Thing.” It is a humorous piece created around the concept that “a lot of what we do in relationships is based on good timing,” Law said. Competition rules required the students to deliver a teaser, or synopsis about the play, a commentary on the play’s meaning, and the reading, all in less than 10 minutes.

Asamoah and Finau each held a black binder with a script and took turns delivering their character’s parts. Asamoah portrayed “Betty” and Finau acted as “Bill.” The characters changed personalities each time “Betty” rang a bell. The play follows the interaction of the characters that meet in a café. Their awkward encounter is continually reset with the ringing of the bell until the two forge a connection, according to a Wikipedia description.

While reciting their lines, the students strived to remember a plethora of technical competition rules: react to each other, but don’t look at each other; don’t step more than once to the front or side; turn script pages in tandem; don’t tip the binder forward and reveal the manuscript.

“It’s very intense,” Law said.

Asamoah and Finau were both stunned at the announcement of their first-place win. “I didn’t think we were going to get first. It was a little shocking,” Asamoah said.

Finau could only strive to suppress his joy. “I was happy. I was smiling,” he said.

The students practiced roughly 15 hours for the competition. The night before the event, a video Law took of the students’ performance was less than satisfactory, so the duo stayed up until 3 a.m. practicing their play. They also prayed. Finau led a small devotion in which he read his favorite Bible text, Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” The students left the competition in God’s hands and determined “no matter what happens, God is out there for us,” Finau said.

The victory proved to the students the value of continually striving toward a goal. “Even if you have the feeling you can’t do it, keeping doing it. There’s something out there for you,” Finau said.

In preparation for competition, Law and her students contacted Riverside Community College forensic coaches Joe DeSantis and Jennifer Page, seeking advice on the tournament’s numerous technical rules. DeSantis is director of forensics at the college and Page is a speech instructor there.

Law began her position at La Sierra in fall 2006. She previously earned a master’s degree in English from LSU and also achieved a master’s in education from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is working toward completion of a doctorate from the latter school.

Law plans to continue helping students enter competitions with sights set on the nationals. If the association schedules Saturday events in which the team needs to compete, Law will petition to have the team participate on Sunday, she said. Speech and debate events are important in that they enable students to “mingle with the best of the best. It pushes the individual to really do well,” Law said.

PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)