Rice Students Talk Their Way to the Top

It might be that recent graduate Priscilla Parrett ’07 could talk you into anything. In April, she took home the national championship in persuasive speaking at the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET), held at the University of Minnesota at Mankato.
Parrett was one of 10 students from the George R. Brown Forensics Society, Rice’s speech and debate team, to compete in the tournament, which had 1,200-plus entries from more than 100 colleges and universities. The team finished 19th out of 120, reaching its goal of finishing in the top 20 by year’s end. Just four years ago, the squad had no qualifiers for the event.

AFA-NIET is the most difficult national debate tournament to qualify for, and schools generally qualify in only two to four events, but Rice qualified in 26 events. Parrett also reached the quarterfinals in the Impromptu Speaking category, placing her in the top 24 in the nation in this event, and she was selected to the 2007 AFA-NIET All-American Team for her community service work, academic performance and competitive success.

Hrishi Hari ’08 reached the semifinals in Extemporaneous Speaking, placing in the top 16 in the nation, and he also reached the quarterfinals in Persuasive Speaking, placing him in the top 24. Other team members who qualified in various events were Ted Torous, Holly Naylor, Kirti Datla, Richard Flores, Everrette Kreider, Aparna Bhaduri, Sara Franco and Jo Hsu.

The team’s success in the AFA-NIET followed a fifth place win in March at the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) Championship Tournament, the finals for the largest intercollegiate debate organization in the nation. Eighteen students from the Forensics Society competed at Colorado College in Colorado Springs against 242 teams from 92 other colleges and universities. The fourth-place finish is Rice’s best since 1998 and is an improvement over last year’s 12th place finish.

The Rice squad won 10 individual awards, led by Parrett, who was selected to the NPDA All-American Team. Other winners were Bhaduri, Robert Crider, Datla, Flores, Hari, Kreider, Jason Siegel and Cathy Yang.

The team is coached by David Worth, director of forensics, and Jeremy Grace, assistant director of forensics.