UofSC Mock Trial Team Places 10th in the National Championship
When you’re ranked 188thin a competition, victory may seem like a distant, perhaps even insurmountable goal. However, the University of South Carolina Mock Trial Team did not let their rankings lessen their determination. Instead they went into the American Mock Trial Association National Championships held in Philadelphia determined to make their mark on a national level for the first time in the team’s history.
This group of 10 students, 7 of whom are pursuing a degree in Arts and Sciences, blazed ahead of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Florida, the University of North Carolina and Georgia Tech to place 10thout of 750 schools in the overall competition. Hannah Perala, media arts major, finished as an All-American Witness (the third-highest witness in the country), an exceptional accomplishment for a freshman.
The team features majors from across the academic disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to media arts major Hannah Perala, the team consists of philosophy, criminal justice, political science and experimental psychology students. Each of these degrees provides unique insight to the mock trial competition and potentially a career in the legal field.