When Yiraldo Campos COM’25 was a high school freshman, she found herself standing in front of a classroom on a Saturday morning, participating in a public speaking contest, and noticing all the spectators and judges watching her perform.

“Suddenly, Campos said, “the binder I was holding closed by accident and I proceeded to freak out internally, while externally, I locked eyes with the judge and stayed frozen for 30 seconds, unable to move due to the embarrassment. For some, that would have been the last time they would ever have competed in public speaking, but for me, that was just the start of my competitive public speaking career. Now, 9 years later, I am preparing myself for the last competition of my career— and most excitingly, it being the national competition.”

Campos is a member of the Rutgers Public Speaking Organization (RPSO), which is coached by SC&I faculty member and alumna Erin Christie PhD’14.

At the AFA-NST District 7 Spring Qualifier, a national qualifying forensics competition, held February 22nd, 2025 at Seton Hall University, Campos placed first in Poetry Interpretation, and his teammate, Emily Abbott, a Psychology major, placed third in Dramatic Interpretation, qualifying them to attend the American Forensics National Competition (AFA) being held in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 4-7, 2025.

Christie said the skills needed to compete in Poetry and Dramatic Interpretation require creativity, dramatic performance skills, strong ability to create and define characters, and an ability to interpret writing from different perspectives.  

“We are so very excited to represent Rutgers University again this year at AFA!” Christie said. “RPSO operates on the principles of inclusivity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. We celebrate the diverse perspectives of our members, recognizing that different academic backgrounds contribute to the development of well-rounded communicators. Our members actively engage in practice sessions, public speaking workshops, and forensic competitions, continuously refining their abilities. We are committed to fostering an environment of mutual respect, where constructive feedback and collaboration lead to the ongoing growth of each individual. So, to have two of our competitors advancing to AFA this year marks our 37th finalist when competing, and our 3rd year advancing to the national-level competition. And we could not be prouder of our team!”  

Looking ahead to graduation, Campos, who is currently employed teaching public speaking to children ages 4-17, said she plans to earn a master’s degree and work in an environment where she can use the public speaking skills she’s worked so hard to develop.

Explaining how she discovered the art and science of poetry interpretation, Campos said, “At the start of my career, I was originally supposed to compete in Public Forum Debate, but after a few months of not having a partner, I was told by my team that I was being entered into Oral Interpretation and had a week to put together a piece. While at first, I was scared, once I started finding poems to put together and established a theme for my speech I automatically fell in love with this activity. The ability to take an idea or topic that means so much to you, then research poems that speak on that topic in a variety of different perspectives and experiences, and then finally put those poems together and organize them in ways that mimic a conversation through different ways; I am not just creating a piece that is a bunch of different poems together, but rather crafting something that incorporates not a single voice or perspective, but rather a story that the audience can immerse themselves into and be part of.”

Campos said her piece this season “focuses on dismantling the taboo ideology, predominantly impacting the Latino community, that one must not talk about their mental health and trauma, but rather lock it inside of oneself. I wanted to demonstrate the multitude of layers within this issue. From the voice of someone who acknowledges their depression but displays it through comedic tones in order to hide it, to the voice of someone who explains how their family teaches them to stuff all the pain they feel and experience into boxes and die with those boxes still unopen, an issue is never experienced in a single way, but rather affects every individual individually. And so when preparing for these competitions, I make sure I focus on how to tell each individual perspective differently but still contain the flowing elements. This is done in order to give adequate time for each perspective, while also allowing the audience to experience each perspective separately.”

Looking ahead to graduation, Campos, who is currently employed teaching public speaking to children ages 4-17, said she plans to earn a master’s degree and work in an environment where she can use the public speaking skills she’s worked so hard to develop.

“Within my last 5 years of being a member of RPSO,” Campos said, “I have been able to accomplish more than I have ever imagined I could. From teaching me how to improve my skills, to providing a reminder of my capability when I felt I wasn't good enough, RPSO has been the light for me these last few years and I truly will never be able to thank the organization enough.”

Learn more about the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website. 

Photo caption: Rutgers students competing in February were, pictured left to right, Deven Sukhdeo (Religious Studies), Erin Christie PhD’14, Yiraldo Campos (Communication), Emily Abbott (Psychology), Emilie Puja (ITI), and Allison Zhong (Economics and Statistics). Photo courtesy of Erin Christie.