Diablo Valley College’s speech and debate team has been breaking records the past few years and they showcased why at their Speech Night on Thursday, April 18. The team has won the Northern California Forensics Association Championship and placed number one at the Community College National Tournament in their own division according to an email sent by professor and coach Robert Hawkins.

Coach Sasan Kasravi said the team has had, “historic success.”

The team had a full house in the Performing Arts Center, which seats approximately 300 people.

Five different speeches were given, ranging from a speech to entertain, a persuasive speech, a dramatic interpretation and a prose interpretation.

The night ended with a debate arguing whether or not voting for Associated Students of Diablo Valley College should be compulsory.

Audience participation was encouraged during the event to indicate whether the audience  thought an argument or point was good or bad.

Professor Hawkins started the night off by stating that most people were there for “civic engagement” or “extra credit.”

Chris Pratt was the first speaker of the night and also a first year competitor.

In his speech to entertain, he talked about the perceptions people have about Africa and gained quite a few laughs from the audience even though the topic was heavy.

Meredith Mountjoy, who has awards in both speech and debate, gave a persuasive speech about the epidemic of online exploitation or ‘sexploitation’  of people and had tools standing by to discourage the practice when the audience left the event.

Inquirer staff member, Nicole Sims, Northern California D1 champion, did a dramatic interpretation from the perspective of a black parent having to worry and warn her child of the dangers of the world’s perception of their race.

Vegas Dars-Horn performed a prose interpretation of “My Favorite Pants” by Mike McGee enthralling and surprising the audience with the ending.

Miranda Hansen performed a dramatic interpretation of a woman waiting for the results of her Huntington’s test, a disease with a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.

To end the night, Isaiah Kim and Alexa Fosdick argued against making voting for ASDVC elections mandatory while Meredith Mountjoy and McIlvena-Davis argued in favor of it.

If interested in speech or debate, the program at the event said that students should sign up for Communications 163 in the fall to pursue that interest.