Being part of the Oregon mock trial team taught me so much about myself and gave me the confidence and ability to stand up for myself and was an essential building block of my career since graduating. It gave me invaluable skills like public speaking, critical thinking, self confidence, and acedemic agility that I frankly could not have ever learned or obtained in a classroom and would have otherwise have taken years to learn in the work place. To deprive future U of O students the opportunity to access this critical club would be a disservice to their academic and career growth alike.