The Lone Star College-North Harris speech team recently attended the year-end Phi Rho Pi National Speech Tournament and the American Readers Theater Association's National Tournament with successful results.

Phi Rho Pi is a national honor society for speech competitors in two year colleges in the United States. The purpose of the honor society is to promote competitive forensic activities, and educational, professional, and leadership experience in the field of forensics. At present there are approximately 130 member schools in the society.

At the Phi Rho Pi tournament, Gold Awards were given to Aaron Phillips for Poetry Interpretation and Bryan Powell for Poetry Interpretation (top Poetry at the tournament) and in Dramatic Interpretation. Phillips also earned a Silver Award in Dramatic Interpretation. Several Bronze Awards were granted including Jonathan Casiano for Programmed Oral Interpretation; Ladawn Taylor in Poetry Interpretation; and Elaine Jones in Persuasive Speaking. Additionally, Powell placed in the top 10 speakers at the tournament while Phillips placed within the tournaments top 15 speakers.

LSC-North Harris, as a college, took Second Place in Individual Events and Third Place in Overall (Individual Events and Debate Events) in the Wheeler Division Sweepstakes.

LSC-North Harris also entered two theaters into this year's American Readers Theater Association National Tournament, "Man Down" featuring Bryan Powell, Jonathan Casiano, and Aaron Phillips and "Remember Me," with performers Darwin Gilmore, Amanda Vennebush, Tiffany Chen, and Stephen Blaschke.  Both productions, as well as the ensemble cast and individual performers received several nominations for awards.  Powell, Casiano, and Phillips tied for Outstanding Male Performer in "Man Down." A first in the history of the tournament - no ties have ever been awarded before. "Man Down" received Outstanding Achievement in Script and Third Place in Finals, while "Remember Me" garnered World Premier Champions and Semifinalist (top 8 Readers Theatre).

For more information about the North Harris College forensic program, call 281.618.5641.

Lone Star College-North Harris is located at 2700 W.W. Thorne Drive, one-half mile south of FM 1960 E, between Aldine-Westfield and Hardy Roads. For more information about the college, call 281.618.5400 or visit: NorthHarris.LoneStar.edu.

Lone Star College System consists of five colleges, including CyFair, Kingwood, Montgomery, North Harris, and Tomball, six centers and Lone Star College-University Center. It is the largest college system in the Houston area, and third largest community college district in Texas. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.

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