The Reagan Forensics Team & All it Entails
Written by Abdullah Al-Bassam

Forensics is a unique sport that focuses on one’s abilities in acting and communicating ideas. At Reagan, Forensics has been a popular extracurricular for the past 14 years, competing against multiple schools including Rufus King High School, Audubon, and Milwaukee High School of the Arts.

Mrs. Baker-Jackson is the main advisor for the Forensics team. She has been coaching Forensics for around 18 years.  This year, the team began in December of 2018 and have continued to put forth consistent dedication and hard work for their upcoming competitions throughout the rest of this year’s season. She hopes for each student to learn something new in each tournament, which is her biggest goal for the team.

This year, there were a lot of students interested in the productive and social aspects of Forensics. Freshman, Jordyn Czyzewski has been in Forensics since 7th grade. She was interested in joining Forensics because she wanted to meet new people and make new friends on the team. What she likes most about Forensics is how she is able to improve her public speaking skills more often while being able to meet new people. She says that Forensics is a great way to get involved and is “a strong extracurricular for college applications”.

Ava Gessner, a sophomore, has done Forensics all throughout middle school and this is currently her second year on the Reagan Forensics team. She also joined Forensics this year because of how much she loved the art of theatre and how it was incorporated into this sport. According to her, what she likes most about the sport is that “it is unique in the fact that every single time you perform, you get feedback from at least three different people,” and “every time you do your piece, it grows and changes, little by little... ”  She thinks that students will be able to learn how to convey ideas with others on the team.
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Problems the Forensics team has faced include the competitiveness of other schools and the few defeats they have faced in the sport. However, the team wants to learn from their mistakes in the past, rather than feeling disappointed about them. Czyzewski states that “When I face defeat, and my peers win, I remember that everyone’s piece and process is different and we all have things to work on…” Gessner explains how Forensics in high school is much harder than middle school. According to her,  joining high school forensics is more of a commitment. She also thinks it’s “generally more competitive, as there is the chance to qualify for a national tournament.” However, even though high school forensics is more difficult, she builds upon the feedback given by others and improves on her pieces more often in the sport.

Mrs. Baker-Jackson thinks that the skills of working as a team in Forensics and having fair communication too are “one of the most important things you can have”.