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Senior Jaiden Wilson (Photo courtesy of Jasmine Lahooti)

Freshman Ava Winkle, sophomore Hunter Glass, senior Alexa Scharlin and senior Jaiden Wilson were among the four students who won 1st place awards at the Ventura County Mock Trial Competition, representing Oak Park High School.  

Wilson’s motivation for joining Mock Trial was centered around his love for public speaking. Mock Trial has been keeping him busy since his sophomore year, and he has enjoyed the program ever since. 

“I have been doing public speaking ever since I was in 4th grade. I participated in oratorical competitions and decided I wanted to do more public speaking than just a competition once a year, so in 10th grade I joined Mock Trial and was the closing attorney,” Wilson wrote to the Talon.  “In my junior year, I became very into movies and thought it would be cool to play a witness and try acting. I enjoyed it a lot and decided to be a witness in my senior year as well.” 

Students were able to take away key learning moments and skills that they gained from their experience on Mock Trial. Glass will use  what he learned from this experience and apply it to his life. 

“I think I learned that there is never a black or white answer to a lot of things. There is always room for discussion,” Glass wrote. “I think that understanding how to formulate that discussion is so important and that is something I will be taking away with me.” 

In addition to gaining real world experience, students also enjoyed working as a team. 

“I learned a lot about working as a team while on Mock Trial. I have never done an online mock trial before, so it was a fun experience to compete in a virtual courtroom,” Ava wrote to the Talon. “Overall, I had a wonderful time practicing and competing with my friends while learning more about Mock Trial.”

Just like everything else, prepping for competition came with its own difficulties and challenges. 

“I think the most challenging part of being the defendant, Jamie Cobey, was when I was creating the character Jamie,” Wilson wrote.

Despite the difficulty of delivering his character, Wilson got recognition for his performance. 

“The most gratifying part of being the defendant was when one of the scoring attorneys noticed my acting.  The scoring attorney also commented on how I was able to stay in character on cross examination and of course winning best Jamie Cobey witnesses was nice as well,” Wilson wrote.

Wilson recalls the feeling of winning 1st place in Mock Trial. 

“It feels satisfying and a bit stressful for having to compete more but it was also fun. It feels good to be some of the few, personally if I look at Mock Trial Alumni I see them as better than me so I always compare  myself to see if they are better than or if I just got lucky with winning. Regardless, I’m happy we are going on and I am confident in our term,” Wilson wrote.