第一代性能

在今年的全国演讲比赛中, senior Diego Perez advanced beyond preliminary rounds in four events and finished ranked #10 nationally. He is one reason 欧文康考迪亚大学’s speech team is edging closer to the kind of national stature and dominance that the debate team has enjoyed as #1 or #2 in the nation for the past five years.

Perez grew up in the Bay Area and transferred to 欧文康考迪亚大学 from a community college there. He discovered speech in high school and placed third in the state championship tournament. 他的教练鼓励他在大学里继续深造.

“Once he said it would help me pay for college, I was hooked,” says Perez. “I am a first-generation student and first-generation born here in the U.S. 我的父母都出生在墨西哥. 我想继续我的教育.”

欧文康考迪亚大学 started recruiting Perez after his freshman year in college, 当他在两个项目中获得银牌时. 但他在社区大学的教练对此并不重视.

“他说，‘不要浪费你的时间. 康科迪亚甚至不在地图上，’”佩雷斯回忆道. His goal was to attend the University of Texas at Austin, a speech powerhouse.

在他大二时的全国锦标赛上, representatives from that university pulled Perez aside after one of his poetry rounds and said, “你真的很适合我们. 我们想让你去我们学校.但到那时，康科迪亚已经成为一个有吸引力的选择. 最后，佩雷斯去了尔湾，而不是德克萨斯.

But for his family, even that distance of separation was hard to take. Perez’s mother didn’t understand why he was going so far away to college, or investing so much time in making speeches and dramatic presentations.

“我妈妈不想让我离开，”佩雷斯回忆道. “I said, ‘Yeah, but Concordia is giving me a good amount of money and I won’t be in debt a lot.“我离开的那天就像一场哭泣的派对. Mom was on the porch looking to the ground, crying, thinking I was leaving forever. 我说，‘我会回来过感恩节的.’”

沿着海岸行驶时，佩雷斯怀疑自己是否犯了一个错误.

“我想，‘我谁也不认识. 我没有一些人那么有钱. I’m Latino. 他们会怎么看我? 他们会认为我是暴徒吗?’”

家庭和学校之间的差异常常是不和谐的.

“At Concordia, it was the first time I had my own room,” Perez says. “我想怎么装饰就怎么装饰. When I went to dinner (at the cafeteria) it was like a nice restaurant. 我和欧文康考迪亚大学的校长共进晚餐, 做了这么多好事, but when I came home I still shared my bedroom with my little brother in a two-room house behind my grandma’s house.”

和他父母一样支持他, 他们帮不上什么忙, 学业或经济资助表格.

“Filling out the FAFSA was so frustrating that at one point I broke down,” Perez says. “我在想，‘如果没有人帮助我，我怎么能做到这一点?’ But I wanted to be a good example for my little brother so he could see he could do it, too.”

I am a first-generation student and first-generation born here in the U.S. 我的父母都出生在墨西哥. 我想继续我的教育.

他说，回家总能让人放松.

“学校是快节奏的. 我正忙于学术和演讲方面的工作，”他说. “At home I get a nice little job, keep it casual, hang out with friends. 有时我发现它太物质化了(在南加州).”

佩雷斯将演讲项目归功于“指导我完成学业”.” He also credits his “great coach,” Yaw Kyeremateng, a former top competitor in speech nationally.

尽管他怀疑自己的能力, 佩雷斯在一次大型赛事中进入了四分之一决赛, and made the final round in another in his first year 在欧文的康考迪亚大学.

“我意识到我可以做到，”他说.

在欧文康考迪亚大学的第二年, Perez worked even harder to become the best speech-maker he could be. Konrad Hack, director of forensics, says success in speech requires a work ethic and talent.

“迭戈两样都有，”哈克说. “他会进来一遍又一遍地播放一篇文章. After a while he couldn’t make a mistake because it was so ingrained. 它很干净，很完美. 迭戈非常有风度. 他有一种个人魅力. 他知道他要做什么，他会去做.”

Kyeremateng says, “I don’t know if anybody on the team has grown as much as Diego has. Being at Concordia has helped him grow personally and even more successfully as a speech competitor. He worked tirelessly in the practice room, always bugging me for extra coaching hours. 他是一个很好的榜样.”

Perez advanced further than any 欧文康考迪亚大学 speech student has before in major tournaments leading up to nationals. 在一个大型的春季比赛中吸引了全国最优秀的人才, Perez advanced in two events and won first place in oral interpretation and second in drama interpretation. It was the first time 欧文康考迪亚大学 had reached the finals, or won an event there.

哈克说这不像辩论的人, “Speech folks have more of a performance bent and are less about proving you right or wrong.” Perez excelled at creating performance pieces that arrested attention and gripped the heart. Going into nationals he prepared and memorized five different 10-minute speeches for each of five events: informative speaking, 散文解读, 诗歌的解释, 口头口译和戏剧口译课程.

“Nationals was a big deal,” says Perez, who admits he was nervous going in. “我不知道我是否能达到标准杆. 压力很大. 很多教练来看我的表演.”

他说，他的目标是让评委和观察员“感到惊讶”.”

他的散文解读, 关于一个男孩在残疾和社会接受中挣扎的故事, 进入了四分之一决赛. 他的诗歌解读, about Mexican journalists being killed for writing about cartels or government issues, 进入了半决赛.

His program of oral interpretation made it to finals and took sixth place. His subject hit close to home as he argued that so-called “anchor babies” — children born to Latina women while in the U.S., allegedly for the purpose of gaining citizenship for the mother — are more myth than reality. Perez played a character whose father was being deported to Mexico, 迫使男孩做出选择，留在美国.S. 或者和他父亲一起去.

他的最高成绩, 戏剧表演第三名, came with a heart-wrenching enactment of a father coming to terms with the death of his son. Perez’s point was that “Latinos have machismo and don’t show emotions as much. 我们需要让他们在治疗中感到受欢迎，这样他们就会有更多的联系.”

迭戈非常有风度. 他有一种个人魅力. 他知道他要做什么，他会去做.

佩雷斯在那年结束时排名全国第十. 欧文康考迪亚大学's speech program has moved from a top 50 program, 进入去年的前20名, 今年的前10名. 哈克说，明年他们的目标是进入前5名.

“We wanted to create a program where instead of having to go to the Midwest to shoot for a national championship, 学生可以在这里做,” Hack says. “根据迭戈今年的表现，这绝对是可能的.”

对佩雷斯来说，“知道我在四个项目中取得了进步是值得的. 我在台上思考的整个过程都很谦卑, ‘Finally, 在看完这些精彩的表演者之后，我走上舞台.灯光、人群、照相机照在你脸上. 非常激烈. It was great.”

他也很感激自己在校园里的两年生活. “I acclimated really well, and made a great group of friends,” he says.

佩雷斯仍然对他所取得的成就感到惊讶. “在此之前，我从未想过自己有这个能力，”他说.

What’s next?

“任何与表演和娱乐有关的事情，”他说.