Chico State Speech And Debate Team Member Top 12 In The Nation

(Chico, CA March 22)  Kristina Sanville, a senior Communication Studies – Public Affairs major received a semifinalist award in After Dinner Speaking at the Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament hosted online by the University of Cincinnati this past weekend.  This placed Kristina amongst the top 12 After Dinner Speakers in the country and gave Chico State its highest Pi Kappa Delta Nationals place since joining the organization in 2015.  Kristina has had a number of competitive successes this past year in both After Dinner Speaking and Impromptu Speaking, including being crowned the Northern California Forensics Association’s Champion in After Dinner Speaking a few weeks ago, but this award recognized her among the national speech and debate community.  The tournament had 79 schools and 520 students from all over the nation competing in a multitude of public speaking, oral interpretation, professional development, and debate events.  Kristina also captured an Award of Excellence in the Interviewing competition at the tournament.  In addition to Kristina’s amazing success, Chico State was proud to have three competitors in the experimental event of Spanish Interpretation, where students performed an oral interpretation of literature in Spanish.  Stephanie Castillo, Sissi Danini, and Juan Diaz-Flores were able to perform in this experimental event putting Chico State amongst some of the more innovative speech and debate programs in the country.

Although Kristina was the big winner for Chico State at the tournament, the team had a number of competitors at the tournament, many in their first semester of Speech and Debate competition.  The online environment is a tough one for competitors, isolating their performances to their living spaces instead of being at a college campus with all the other competitors as is usually the case.  But,  the team was able to maintain close to its size from its prior appearance at the national tournament in 2019 (2020 was canceled due to Covid), with 6 competitors competing in two or three events each.  Participants included Stephanie Castillo (Jr. Poli Sci-US Politics), Mia Shew-Smith (Soph. Poli Sci – Legal Studies), Eric Tubbs (Sr. Economics), Garren Schreiber (Jr. Comm Studies – Org Comm), Sissi Danini (Jr. Comm Studies – Public Affairs), Juan Diaz-Flores (Sr. Math), Sabrina Oregel (Sr. Comm Studies – Org Comm), and Kristina Sanville (Sr. Comm Studies – Public Affairs).  The team was also joined at the tournament by coaches, Sue Peterson, Mark Faaita, and graduate teaching assistant Alex Wilson.

Kristina has one last tournament as a competitor as Chico State’s only qualifier for the National Forensics Association National Tournament to be held online in mid-April.  She will compete in After Dinner Speaking and Impromptu Speaking.