Orange Coast College Debate Team Wins 3rd National Championship

Orange Coast College’s speech and debate team has captured its third national championship in speech and debate, finishing ahead of 74 community colleges from Alaska to Maryland.

Peg Taylor, one of the coaches along with Michael Leigh, said the team finished with a record 252 points, 50 points ahead of the second-place team.

“The students really worked hard for this event. It’s sort of a mini-Olympics event for debaters,” Taylor said.

The student orators competed in a variety of categories including the readers theater, informative and persuasive speaking, poetry and prose readings, duet acting, oral interpretation of literature and speech to entertain.

Taylor said that she began debating in the ninth grade and that it “immediately became my first love.”

“There isn’t anything more educational than preparing a speech or debate because it involves a lot of research,” she said. “Someone that debates must be aware of current events and well read in history, philosophy and economics, to name a few subjects. There isn’t just any one field where one can concentrate.”

The OCC Pirates previously won national titles in 1979 and 1980. Last year the team placed second.

“We lost the 1984 title by 2 1/2 points,” Taylor said.

She also credits the co-coaches for the team’s win. They are: Barbara Bullard, Glenn Smith and Alice Reich.

Taylor is the president of the National Community College Speech Assn., the organization that sponsored the debate.

“Winning this event has been a wonderful experience and has to be the highlight of my 25 years of involvement with debating,” Taylor said.

Nancy Ruyter, assistant professor of dance and associate dean for the School of Fine Arts at UC Irvine, was awarded a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to begin work on a dance bibliography. The bibliography will begin with a current year’s publications and will include dance ethnology and history, aesthetics and criticism, kinesiology, philosophy and therapy.

Alexandria R. Malloy of Fullerton, John W. Lindberg of Orange and Kathy L. Lang of Anaheim are winners of Cal State Fullerton’s outstanding student awards for 1985. Malloy won the President’s Associates Award; Lindberg received the Friends of the State University Service Award, and Lang was presented the Conference of CSUF Alumni Outstanding Senior Award. The President’s award is determined by scholarship and contributions to the Associated Students-sponsored activities. The Friends’ award is based on scholarship and contributions to the campus that have benefited the community. The Alumni award is based on scholarship and contributions to the campus.

Claudia Stewart of Yorba Linda was the second-place winner of the recent 1985 Statewide Accounting Contest sponsored by the Foundation for Advancement of Business Education. Stewart, a Fullerton College business major, also claimed a second in statewide run-offs for the national contest.

Jenny Castillon was named Catholic Woman of the Year by Catholic Community Agencies Auxiliary of the Diocese of Orange. Castillon was honored for her work on behalf of the poor of Orange County and Tijuana. Castillon is a resident of Garden Grove. Fullerton resident Josephine Miller, 100 years old, was given a special Honorary Recognition Award by the auxiliary. Miller began working with the Catholic Church at age 28. She is the mother of nine children.