Music student Linda Huang, poses with Billy Bronco as they welcome 500 Pomona Unified School District children on campus to see a LA Opera performance of "Figaro's American Adventure". Linda and other members of Music Educators Network Conference helped host the children and performed for them after the opera.
A team from Cal Poly Pomona reached the semifinals and placed in the top four at the national Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition held Thursday, Feb. 21, in San Antonio, Texas.
The Cal Poly Pomona Ethics Bowl team engaged in the ultimate test of reasoning by addressing a wide range of issues such as direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising and the distribution of photographs via Google Street View.
The Cal Poly Pomona team -- consisting of John Balla, Melinda Carrido, Cion Villalobos, Ara Astourian and Jennifer Cryer -- qualified for the national competition after winning the California Regional Ethics Bowl Competition in December. Nearly 150 colleges and universities across the nation competed, but only 32 qualified for the annual national competition.
At the national competition, the Cal Poly Pomona team swept through its preliminary matches, defeating Western Michigan University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Kentucky.
The team then dominated a very well-prepared team from DePauw University during its quarterfinal match. The team's streak of nine consecutive match wins came to an end during the semifinal match against Wright State University, a university with multiple national titles.
"For our team to reach the national semifinals is an extraordinary achievement," said the teams coach, philosophy professor Michael Cholbi. "To be in the top four in the country after only three years of fielding an Ethics Bowl team at Cal Poly Pomona is astonishing."
In the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, a moderator poses questions to teams of three to five students. Each team receives a set of case studies in advance of the competition, and questions posed to teams at the competition are taken from that set. A panel of judges evaluated answers based on intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance and deliberative thoughtfulness.
Original Article: Polycentric
Cal Poly Pomona's Mock Trial Team placed seventh out of the 28 teams who competed at the American Mock Trial Association Pacific Regional Competition in Rancho Cucamonga on Feb. 23 and 24.
Cal Poly Pomona trotted its way to the top amid competitors from schools such as UCLA, UC San Diego, USC and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. This tremendous show of force garnered Cal Poly Pomona a bid to compete at the Tucson National Tournament hosted at Arizona State University on March 14 - 16. This is the second time in the team's five year history that Cal Poly Pomona has earned a national bid.
Cal Poly Pomona student James Perry was specifically lauded with an Outstanding Attorney trophy. Only 11 such trophies were awarded to the nearly 200 mock trial attorneys competing over the weekend. Fellow teammates Ella Tarnate and Jaquelyn Coella also brought trophies home for outstanding performances as trial witnesses.
To compete on the team students must first successfully complete PLS 308. The course is offered in the fall of every year and is instructed by alumnus Raul C. Sabado. Professor Sabado is a trial attorney with the Office of the Los Angeles County Public Defender. Attorney and alumna Orsolya Forgo was the team's assistant coach.
"The beauty of the students' success in this program is that it's multi-faceted," remarked Sabado. "Students bring national glory to Cal Poly while earning one of the most attractive extracurricular activities one can declare on a law school application."
Sabado reports that, "every successful graduate of our program who has applied to law school has matriculated into a top 100 law school."
For more information about the team, visit www.calpolymocktrial.com.
Original Article: Polycentric
