DeKALB | As the Forensics Team prepares for its competition this weekend, graduate student Julia Boyle reflects on her determination to win the Pi Kappa Delta National Collegiate Forensics tournament so she could contribute to her speech’s cause on gun control violence.

Boyle competed in the tournament on March 16 to 20 at the University of Kentucky and placed third overall. Pi Kappa Delta, which is the oldest national collegiate forensic organization, awards the top three competitors with donation money for an organization of their choice. The award money was donated earlier this month.

Boyle placed in the persuasion speech round. Competitors had to prepare a 10-minute speech about a topic they are passionate about.

“As a forensics team, we are dedicated to helping people find their voices,” Boyles said. “Forensics helps improve research skills and proves what topics you care about.”

Boyle said her persuasion speech was about a research ban that the National Rifle Association instituted in 1996 after a study was published about guns that said there is a correlation between people who have guns and homicides in that family.

The National Rifle Association banned research about guns because it thought it would promote a gun control agenda. Fewer academic studies about guns are conducted because they won’t receive funding, Boyle said.

“I think part of the reason why we have so many issues on gun violence today is because we aren’t really allowed to touch the topic,” Boyle said.

Boyle chose to endorse NIU’s Forward, Together Forward scholarship because it hit home. Her coaches were affected by the Feb. 14, 2008, NIU shooting, during which former NIU student Steven Kazmiercak took the lives of five students and himself after bringing a gun into Cole Hall during a class lecture.

“I wanted to find an organization that would benefit [a gun-control related] cause,” Boyle said. “Although it’s difficult to study fire-arms, I wanted to help someone going to NIU further their education.”

Boyle also works as a communications teaching assistant at NIU and coaches the NIU Forensics Team.

“Teaching is something I am very interested in,” Boyle said. “Forensics has helped prepare me when helping other people build public speaking skills.”

Freshman engineering major Claudia Cruz has Boyles as a teaching assistant. Cruz said she enjoys her as a teaching assistant because Boyle teaches at a good pace.

“Boyle is open-minded, understanding and lenient when it comes to grading,” Cruz said. “I trust her as my professor to guide me because I know she knows what she is doing.”