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THE OBSERVER
May 5, 2016
Features
13
Fordham Mock Trial: Debating Their Way to the Top By REESE RAVNER Features Co-Editor
The month of April was an exciting time for the Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) mock trial team. After qualifying for the 32nd American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) National Championship Tournament for only the third time in the program’s history, the team celebrated a victory of sixth place in their division at the competition. I sat down with Kavin Thadani, head coach of the FCLC mock trial program, and Nuwani Irizarry, FCLC ’16 and president of the mock trial program, to learn more about the program and its successes this year. According to Thadani, the AMTA is the governing body of mock trial, meaning it is the main organization that connects the country’s undergraduate university mock trial teams together. Each August, the AMTA puts out a case problem, alternating yearly between civil cases and criminal cases, that includes several components, such as witness statements, pieces of evidence and documents. Throughout the year, the AMTA may tweak the case by adding a witness or changing facts to either enhance the case or fix errors. In the fall, colleges and universities throughout the country compete in invitational tournaments to practice and hone their performance skills. FCLC’s two mock trial teams each compete in three tournaments during the first semester. The official AMTA season begins in February. This year, 663 teams from over 300 schools (a school can have up to five teams, but many schools have just one) competed in regional tournaments across the country. The regional tournaments typically consist of about 20 to 30 teams with the top 192 teams advancing to the Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) in March. There are eight ORCS tournaments, composed of 24 teams. The top six teams from each of those tournaments advance to the National Championship Tournament in April. The National Championship Tournament consists of two divisions, the Larry D. Estridge Division and the Kirkland & Ellis Division, into which the teams are randomly divided. After four rounds of competition with five ballots in each round, the winners of each division advance to the final round.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FORDHAM LINCOLN CENTER MOCK TRIAL
The 2015–2016 mock team placed sixth in their division at the National Championship Tournament.
This year, the FCLC mock trial team placed sixth in the Kirkland & Ellis Division, with a 10-5-5 record and ninth in the tournament overall. Neilab Rahimzada, FCLC ’16 and co-captain of the team, and Sandra Jovic, FCLC ’18, were awarded AllAmerican awards, meaning they were ranked in the top 11 out of 144 students in their respective roles of attorney and witness. The number of people on the FCLC team varies from year to year. According to Irizarry, this depends on graduating seniors, members deciding not to return or the number of freshmen that try out. This year, around 50 people tried out. “We typically end up with about 20 members every fall semester,” Thadani said. Information sessions are usually held during the first week of school and tryouts are held on the first weekend. Tryouts include students preparing opening statements and witness monologues. The coaching staff and the executive board evaluate and choose the team. “We just can’t take everyone who tries out, so it’s a very selective process,” Thadani said. Irizarry noted that returning members aren’t nec-
essarily guaranteed a spot. “At the beginning of year, we are gearing toward giving everyone as much experience as possible. People try witness and attorney roles; we try to give everyone a comprehensive experience. In the spring, we focus more on being as competitive as possible, so someone with more skill will take on more roles. For invitationals, performance doesn’t stop you from going forward, but by February, it’s make or break,” Thadani said. He added that the team would never take more students than they could, as to ensure that each member has the most rewarding and wellrounded experience possible. The team holds tryouts very early to allow enough time for practice and training for new members who may need to learn new terms and rules. The tryouts are open to FCLC and Gabelli students of all majors. “It’s one of the best experiences you can have on campus, regardless of if you want to be an attorney or not,” Thadani expressed, crediting this to the legal, critical thinking, public speaking and acting experience that mock trial provides. He noted that not everyone who par-
ticipates in mock trial goes on to be a lawyer and that the program creates strong bonds and friendships. Thadani is an FCLC graduate and an attorney for the New York City Law Department in the Special Federal Litigation Division. His experience on the team as an undergraduate student sparked his interest in coaching, and he has been on the coaching staff for four years, first as an assistant coach and then as a head coach. “This year has been one of the best years in the program’s history. I hope people are getting a lot out of the experience and learning a lot. I think I learned more from mock trial than I did from any class. The students we draw are really passionate about it and you learn how to really perform and be persuasive, and it gives you that experience you can’t get in a classroom,” Thadani said. Irizarry, who is graduating this month, said that mock trial is “the community [she has] really gotten closest with during [her] time at Fordham.” She added that the best part of mock trial were the competitions. Besides the successes at the Na-
tional Championship Tournament, Thadani noted that “just throughout the semester, one of our teams went undefeated at regionals and finished first place. The previous week, we won a very prestigious invitational tournament, Georgetown. We won 18 trophies this year, and throughout the year, we’ve won and placed at almost every tournament. We’ve also had 15 individual awards.” Thadani encourages students to come to information sessions to learn about the program and to try out for the team. “We do a lot of traveling—that’s enticing to some people. [The program is] good for people who are very competitive, especially at a school where there aren’t a lot of opportunities to be in a competitive organization. And also we’re very successful, compared to other clubs or sports. We do really well, we win a lot, we’re very competitive and that’s because of the work we put in throughout the year, and I encourage people at least to enquire and think of it as an option,” Thadani said. To learn more about FCLC mock trial, you can visit their informational website: fordham.edu/mocktriallc.
Alumnus Joseph Gitler Combats Poverty in Israel By MARIA ISHIDA Staff Writer
Presently, a Fordham Law School (FLS) graduate is providing food for the surprising number of undernourished people in his adopted home of Israel. Joseph Gitler is the founder and chairman of Leket Israel, the largest food bank and food rescue network in the country. With the help of 55,000 annual volunteers, Leket collects and provides over two million meals annually. “I am very privileged that I was able to come here and handle the issue successfully,” Gitler explained. Gitler immigrated to Israel with his family in 2000. He was shocked to learn how much food was being wasted, while hunger and poverty were growing in Israel. Even today, Gitler’s shock continues to grow. Officially, Gitler first began distributing food by using his own car with a home refrigerator. Leket Israel was founded in 2003 and helps impoverished people throughout the country, regardless of their age, gender, ethnic background or religion. They run several projects, including Sandwiches for Kids, which was launched in 2006. There are 850,000 children suffering from
COURTESY OF LUKE CUSUMANO
Currently, there are 850,000 children suffering from hunger in Israel.
hunger in Israel, and many of them have to go to school without sufficient meals. In order to help feed these children, volunteers make and distribute 7,500-8,000 sandwiches every morning in 40 cities.
In March of 2016, Gitler received the country’s prestigious Yigal Alon Prize for his significant impact against hunger. “It is really special for me,” he expressed, “because it is not an award specifically given
to an immigrant, but it is given to people living in the country, who have done something pioneering.” Even though Gitler now takes the leading role in food issues, it is not something he had imagined himself doing when he was a Fordham student. “I was pretty young,” he said. “I went straight from college. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life.” Gitler has been living in Israel ever since he immigrated with his wife and five children in 2000. Despite the tense political environment, he finds Israel an exciting place to live. “In many ways, it’s very complicated [in the] Middle East,” he said. “But that makes life very exciting. You never know what is coming next here, good or bad.” Today, one in five citizens are living below the poverty line in Gitler’s adopted home. Yet, at the same time, about 35 percent of food is being wasted in Israel. “If we could just rescue 25 percent of that food, about 600,000 tons, we would not be hearing of anyone being hungry in Israel,” he said. Looking back on the early days, Gitler found that Israel was culturally very different from the United States. He initially struggled with
the language, but has since become much more comfortable speaking Hebrew. Gitler faces some major challenges today. “There are so many more people in need than we are able to serve,” he said. Moreover, Gitler has to decide which agency to work with and how much food to give them. “It’s really difficult for us to figure that out,” he explained. “There is no right answer.” Gitler is continuing to work towards achieving that goal. He aims to distribute 50,000 tons of food per year by 2020. This would make Leket Israel one of the largest food providers and charities in the world. “That is pretty amazing considering the size of Israel, which is around the size of New Jersey,” he said. “[It’s a] very small country, and it gets more attention when you hear how big it is.” The FLS degree can be used in many ways. Gitler’s example serves as a reminder that each of us can make a positive impact on this world. Gitler has big ambitions for the good he can do. He said, “possibilities are endless, don’t let anything stop you.” For more information on Lekel Israel, check out their website: http://leket.org.il/English/Israel.