Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Over Memorial Day weekend at the National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL) Grand National Tournament, Niemah Jones, a sophomore at the Milwaukee High School of the Arts, represented her hometown well as the city of Milwaukee hosted the national event for the fourth time in the history of the 68-year tournament (1977, 1979, and 2005).
Jones finished in the top eight in the Dramatic Performance Acting category. See the full tournament results here.
Thousands of high school students, judges, coaches, and parents from all 50 states entered the NCFL competition, which was held at five sites across the city: Marquette University, Milwaukee Area Technical College, the Milwaukee Theatre, the Hilton City Center Hotel, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Dramatic Performance combines two sections - solo serious acting and solo humorous acting - and featured over 200 high schoolers. Jones managed to advance through each stage, and ultimately climbed into the final eight. Congratulations, Niemah!
In two years of high school forensics thus far, Jones has won 16 first place trophies in various suburban competitions. She also earned the top-27 octofinals medal in Dramatic Performance at the 2018 NCFL National Tournament in Washington D.C. and captured the 2019 first place WFCA State of Wisconsin Champion Plaque for Solo Acting earlier this spring. Jones was the top finisher among all Wisconsin high school students at this year's NCFL National Tournament.
Jones has topped off her impressive forensics run with similar success in the classroom, where she is a model MPS student. She looks forward to pursuing a communications degree at Spelman College in Atlanta after high school.
Jones figures to be a force at future NCFL Grand National Tournaments as well, and luckily, she won't have to go far. The NCFL is in the midst of a midwest swing, as the 2020 event will head down I-94 to Chicago before returning north to Minneapolis in 2021.
MPS' forensics and debate success also spread beyond the city of Milwaukee. This year, the National Speech and Debate Tournament was held in Dallas from June 16-21, where Bradley Tech High School student Khari Pleas-Carnie finished inside the top 60 in Humorous Acting among 233 entries. He was one of only seven entries from Wisconsin to advance to this level. He also landed in the top 100 in Storytelling.
Bradley Tech teammates Michael Smith Jr. and Dion Smith similarly acquitted themselves well in the Worlds debate, and continued to make our community #MPSProud!
Well done, Niemah, Khari, Michael, and Dion!