It’s Cool To Be Smart!

Transcript

Now we’re gonna meet Thomas, a senior political science major and President of UMBC’s National Championship winning mock trial team. Thomas loves to cheer on Retriever athletics, but he’s also gonna tell us about what it’s like to compete on an intellectual sports team at a school where it’s cool to be smart. Take it away, Thomas.

– Thank you, Alex. When I came to UMBC, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I knew that I liked politics and the law, but I wasn’t really sure how I was going to make a career out of it. I got lucky and I found UMBC’s mock trial team. Through mock trial, we compete against teams from all across the country in trial simulation activities. Students play witnesses and give testimony or play attorneys and make arguments and that’s what I do most of the time. I’m also the team’s President. I love that I’m able to compete on a successful intellectual sports team run entirely by student leaders and UMBC alumni, like our head coach, Ben Garmer, class of 2013. I get to compete with the team full of people that have differing backgrounds, ideas and majors that all have a passion for advocacy just like I do. The wide variety of people in our program is one of the reasons why we’re so good at what we do. In fact, we won a national championship this year. It’s also so important to me that UMBC values our successes. We’ve been recognized by UMBC’s president, professors who know how hard what we do is and even the governor. Even the students at UMBC are always hyped and excited to see us do our best every year. At UMBC, it’s cool to be smart. Here, I’ve learned how important it is to advocate for yourself and advocate for others and how great it feels to get cheered on, which I do a lot of at UMBC’s soccer games. I can’t wait to apply the skills that I’ve learned and the passion that I’ve developed out in the world. Back to you, Alex.

– That was amazing, it’s so cool to see how everybody cheers each other on at UMBC. Thanks for sharing your experience with mock trial and as part of Retriever Nation, Thomas. I see big things ahead for you for sure, thanks again.