2008 Woodie Awards
Valley Student Earns Place in National Competition
Tammy Funicello
Issue date: 3/1/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
This past weekend Valley College speech team member Rachel Resnick won first place in the open persuasive speaking competition, which made her the first person at Valley to ever qualify for the Interstate Oratory competition.
"It didn't hit me until yesterday," said Resnick. "I thought just breaking into the semifinals was amazing, but then when they announced that I had one first place I wanted to cry because I was in shock. It was just so surreal that it didn't sink in."
The Interstate Oratory competition is the oldest and one of the most prestigious competitions for persuasive speaking since only two college and university students from every state qualify each year. Resnick, 21, is a communications studies major who is taking 18 units at CSUN and nine units at Valley. She also works about 15 hours a week at her family's sushi restaurant.
Resnick is only in her second year of competition and started by taking a speech 101 class.
"The second she spoke in front of the class I knew she was special," said speech 101 teacher Duane Smith. "She's got incredible charisma and self confidence."
She has already competed in the national tournament for community colleges, Phi Rho Pi, and won three bronze medals there for her speeches in persuasive and poetry interpretation. She also competed in the PSCFA Dick Strong Spring Championship held at Valley this past weekend where she qualified for the Interstate Tournament with a persuasive speech about the lack of fire safety and regulations at nursing homes, which will be held on April 21 and 22 in Pensacola, Fla. All the qualifiers speeches will be published.
"None of this would have happened if Duane Smith hadn't pulled me out of his 101 class," said Resnick.
This is Resnick's second and final semester on the speech team at Valley. Next year she will be a full time student at CSUN and hopes to be on their speech team. After she graduates in spring of 2007 she hopes to go to graduate school and someday become a community college speech teacher.
"Any student at Valley can achieve greatness, said speech coach Josh Miller. "With hard work and dedication you can be great and she proves that. She works hard."
"It didn't hit me until yesterday," said Resnick. "I thought just breaking into the semifinals was amazing, but then when they announced that I had one first place I wanted to cry because I was in shock. It was just so surreal that it didn't sink in."
The Interstate Oratory competition is the oldest and one of the most prestigious competitions for persuasive speaking since only two college and university students from every state qualify each year. Resnick, 21, is a communications studies major who is taking 18 units at CSUN and nine units at Valley. She also works about 15 hours a week at her family's sushi restaurant.
Resnick is only in her second year of competition and started by taking a speech 101 class.
"The second she spoke in front of the class I knew she was special," said speech 101 teacher Duane Smith. "She's got incredible charisma and self confidence."
She has already competed in the national tournament for community colleges, Phi Rho Pi, and won three bronze medals there for her speeches in persuasive and poetry interpretation. She also competed in the PSCFA Dick Strong Spring Championship held at Valley this past weekend where she qualified for the Interstate Tournament with a persuasive speech about the lack of fire safety and regulations at nursing homes, which will be held on April 21 and 22 in Pensacola, Fla. All the qualifiers speeches will be published.
"None of this would have happened if Duane Smith hadn't pulled me out of his 101 class," said Resnick.
This is Resnick's second and final semester on the speech team at Valley. Next year she will be a full time student at CSUN and hopes to be on their speech team. After she graduates in spring of 2007 she hopes to go to graduate school and someday become a community college speech teacher.
"Any student at Valley can achieve greatness, said speech coach Josh Miller. "With hard work and dedication you can be great and she proves that. She works hard."
