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Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Volume 160 No. 24 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARY ASHLEY FORTUNO
Mock Trial Team members (Top row; left to right) Alan Pompa Aguaya, Haiyen Nyugen, Margarita Mora, Adi Iyer (Bottom row; left to right) Sophia Diaz, Mary Ashley Fortuno, and Harveen Kaur pose during the Rebel Trojan tournament in Las Vegas earlier this year.
Mock Trial Team discusses adversity By Jeremy Martin SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Editor’s note: Spartan Daily staff writer Alina Ta is a member of the SJSU Mock Trial Team. They’re a team of lawyers and witnesses, who aren’t in the courtroom yet. Despite their position, they still manage to mock the competition. The San Jose State Mock Trial Team is a club where students participate in a debate sport, creating a mock-up version of a court case. Students act out their roles of both lawyers and witnesses. Mary Ashley Fortuno, president and team captain of the club and sociology senior, said the club was
would say outside just on extracurriculars, and then we do internalize scrimmages.” Fortuno said the program tries to “keep the theme of representation alive” and the program has a diverse board. She said it could inspire others to feel like they belong in the group even though they may not feel like they match the typical mock trial crowd. “I think the biggest thing is just representing our culture’s, our gender, because gender is one thing that is a disparity, but then you add color on to it,” Fortuno said. “It’s like a double whammy almost.”
When they actually announced San Jose State, the room kind of went quiet and I heard a couple of chuckles, because no one was expecting San Jose State – little old San Jose State. Again, we’re looked down on because we are a CSU, because we’re a newfound program – no one really takes us seriously. Mary Ashley Fortuno sociology senior Mock Trial Team president and captain founded in 2019. She said the club focuses on a number of valuable skills within the sport. “It mostly focuses on litigation, public speaking and critical thinking skills, as well as teamwork,” Fortuno said. She said the student-run club receives aid from the philosophy department and from its club advisors, Rebecca Chan and Étienne Brown. The team participates in various tournaments, starting at the regional level and advancing to the national level. Fortuno said the team starts practice in August, when case packets are released, and continues to practice until February. “We have all of that time to scrimmage schools, to prepare our case and go to regionals in February,” she said. “Every week, we work at least six to 10 hours, I
SJSU alumnus Leon Lam, who was the assistant coach for the Mock Trial Team, said he still remembers the discrimination the club faced. Leon was a founding member of the club and went to many competitions with the group. He said at competitions, the group was not safe from ridicule. “One year, we had an all kind of Asian American team, at least the attorneys were, one of the attorneys had a cough, and this was during the height of the COVID pandemic,” Lam said. “Of course, one of the judges made a COVID joke.” He also said the judges had criticized female members. On another occasion, Lam said a judge made comments about female competitors needing to act MOCK TRIAL TEAM | Page 2