Announcement of 2020-2021 Student Advisory Board
Aug. 17, 2020 - AMTA President Brandon Harper announces 2020-2021 Student Advisory Board:
This has been a particularly busy summer for AMTA. In addition to a productive and live-streamed summer Board Meeting where we announced that the 2021 Regional and ORCS competitions will take place online, AMTA’s first Diversity & Inclusion Committee has been hard at work addressing the myriad ways that our competitions can be even more inclusive, our Civil Case Committee is working day and night to produce an interesting and fun case for our upcoming competitions, we just wrapped up our One Last Time online mock trial competition for seniors whose seasons were cut short by COVID-19 (including live-streaming every round including the final round and hosting those recordings as free resources online), and our Board is currently discussing our plans for the 2020-2021 season, including the processes whereby we will compete virtually.
As we announced at the conclusion of the Board Meeting, we will be in touch with the community on or before September 1 with additional guidance about the 2020-2021 season. Anyone with questions, comments, or concerns, should feel free to reach out to us via email or email me directly.
I am excited today to make another important announcement: AMTA has selected the 17 student members of our inaugural Student Advisory Board! The 17 students (all current undergraduate students with at last one year of AMTA experience) who have already begun working closely with the Board to prepare for One Last Time and this season’s AMTA competitions, represent so much of the great diversity that makes AMTA what it is. We were overwhelmed by the interest in joining the SAB — nearly 100 students from approximately 70 programs across the country applied. After reviewing the applications, we interviewed 41 students and invited 17 to join the SAB. So many of the applicants impressed us, and there is no question that there were more than 17 qualified candidates. We chose the 17 students that we announce today because of their passion for the activity, their ideas and creativity, and the diversity of perspective that they bring to the discussion. We are proud that our SAB represents both public and private institutions, programs with coaches and student run programs, stretches from coast to coast, includes 16 different programs, represents each of last season’s 8 ORCS sites, spans every competitive band, and so much more. Please join me in congratulating the following members of the Student Advisory Board:
Abby Branham, Florida State University
Amaya Ronczyk, Dillard University
Ashley Lo, University of California, Davis
Ayesha Pasha, Stanford University
Colleen Falconer, Clark University
Faith Blank, University of Oklahoma
Fatima Lawan, Tufts University
Julian Applebaum, Macalaster College
Meadow Walshaw-Wertz, Juniata College
Megan Munce, Northwestern University
Nicole Morote, Arizona State University
Riya Lankaraju, Emory University
Serena Bernal, University of Michigan
Serena Desai, Colby College
Sydney Selman, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Traelon Rodgers, Dillard University
Travis Harper, Harvard University '
The members of the AMTA Student Advisory Board will work with the AMTA Board of Directors to provide the student perspective as the Board prepares for and executes the 2020-2021 season. The SAB members provided invaluable feedback on preparations for One Last Time, and we look forward to their great insight in the months ahead. We will soon update the AMTA website with additional information about our SAB members and those students interested in next season’s SAB should look out for an application next spring. The SAB is co-chaired by AMTA Director Jacinth Sohi and AMTA Candidate Director Samantha Feak. Jacinth and Samantha led the application and selection process and I am excited to see the SAB’s good work under their leadership.
Congratulations again to this excellent group!
Brandon Harper, AMTA President