What are you talking about?

On the 27th of February, the Forensics team left to travel to Jakarta to compete in the 31st annual IASAS Cultural Convention tournament. The team was dressed in ISB travel shirts and dress pants. However, being as classy as they are, they are the only IASAS team to dress down while traveling. The team spent three competitive days presenting their speeches in formal attire despite the beaming Jakartan sun.

Although this year’s IASAS wasn’t as fruitful as previous years, the team still managed to bond and make an impression on the tournament.

Every discipline (Impromptu, Extemporaneous, Original Oratory, Oral Interpretation) all went through three rounds where they were participating against 5 other speakers from every school. At the end of the first three rounds, the top 6 finalists from the tournament were announced.

ISB had Will Condra (12) and Zwe Latt (11) representing us in Extemporaneous speaking finals. Going in seeded first, Zwe gave an interesting commentary on North Korea’s international relations and Will gave an engaging speech on Irag’s future as a sovereign state. Zwe managed to steal bronze giving ISB its first medal of the tournament.

Oral Interpretation finals had Eylul, a speaker who was seeded third who used an excerpt from “The Kite Runner” to move the judges with her Afghani accent. She told a story that had half of the audience on the edge of their seats (and the other half trying to hide in them).

For Original Oratory finals, Taylor Chisholm abandoned her OI roots to present an original speech on the complexities and implications of love. Despite being only 17 she was able to give all of the judges a new perspective on dating and relationships as we know them.

Despite their speaking achievements the team also managed to impress the other speakers and coaches with their amazing team bond. Will Condra shares “It was my first CC and it made me regret not joining earlier… I had the time of my life.” Will managed to steal the competition by entering forensics as a first-year speaker who doubled by participating in Extemp and OI.

The team’s connection was strengthened through the countless hours spent practicing before and during the Forensics season. “Forensics and debate have become a second family of sorts. It’s normal to retreat to the people you know when you’re on a team but in FAD we all get along ridiculously well,” claims OO speaker, Ava Alam.

In the last days of the tournament, the talented musician and coach Mr.Duffy was able to find a guitar. This discovery led him to join not only the ISB team but dozens of other speakers to rejoice in a song of Country Roads by John Denver. The off-key voices could be heard by the entire JIS campus. (We are CC forensics after all, not CC Vocals).