Photo Courtesy of Morgan LeBleu

By Prince Omoruyi

The Poke Press

Members of the McNeese Speech and Debate team won an inaugural content creation scavenger hunt as part of the International Forensics Association tournament in Athens, Greece.

Five McNeese students – Anushka Khanal, Coty Catron, Emmitt Goins, Salisha Felix, and Braylon Fuselier – traveled to Greece March 9-10 to compete against 32 schools, including Vanderbilt, Cornell, and the United States Air Force Academy at the annual tournament.

Along with regular tournament competition, the tournament hosts created a content creation scavenger hunt which had students create videos at important locations throughout the city.

“The tournament added this event this year to encourage a deeper knowledge of the host city’s culture, its people and its history,” said Morgan LeBleu, assistant director of forensics for McNeese. “[The event] also required students to use communication, creation and teamwork skills to make compelling videos.”

Regular travel is part of the team’s culture, and students learn how to navigate large college campuses, cities and airports, LeBleu said. The international competition is the team’s second in two years. A group from the program traveled to Seoul, South Korea, last year for the IFA.

LeBleu, who is also an alumna of the team, said speech and debate works similarly to a track and field team in that all members participate in their own events, but they practice and travel as a group.

Students can compete in 11 speech events and two debate events, but group practices mean members can benefit from learning skills across different events.

“Every member gets the benefits and skills of all events as well as critical thinking skills from judging,” she said.

The Speech and Debate program, also called McNeese Forensics, has been active at McNeese since the 1950s and is one of McNeese’s original student-funded organizations.

That longevity is part of what makes the program unique and successful, LeBleu said, noting the team’s previous coach, mass communication instructor Robert Markstrom, coached the team from the late 1990s until 2021, when current director of forensics Tryfon Boukouvidis, also an alumnus of the team, took over the team’s leadership. In addition, Amy Veuleman, an assistant professor of mass communication, was the team’s assistant director of forensics for seven years. Both of them still share their expertise and knowledge with students.

LeBleu said one of her favorite parts of the tournament was judging a debate round that included all women, both as competitors and judges.

“I got to see two highly proficient, eloquent and persuasive debaters,” she said. “This made me happy because debate has been characterized mostly as a male dominated event.”

LeBleu said students who participate in speech and debate gain a wide range of skills, and membership is open to all McNeese students, even those who might feel nervous about public speaking.

“Communication is routinely on the top of the list companies look for in good employees,” LeBleu said. “We all start somewhere. The first step is always the hardest.”