Undefeated in preliminary rounds of the New York State Bar Association’s High School Mock Trial Tournament, the Roslyn High School Mock Trial team won sudden-death play-off trials against Jericho High School and Great Neck South High School to advance to the Nassau County quarterfinals. The quarter-finals, known as the ‘elite eight,’ will be held virtually on March 30, 2022. Forty-six teams from Nassau County competed in the preliminary rounds.
“I am so proud of these kids,” said advisor and social studies teacher Cathy Elorriaga, who has been advising the team for the past five years. “They are so committed and hard working. They have developed such great chemistry and that has helped them to be very successful. This is truly a team sport and they work really well together as a team.”
The Roslyn High School Mock Trial team members include: Co-captain’s Abby Silverman, Ben Daniels and Hailee Youn; Max Lerner, Shrimoyee Sen, Jessie Dong, Ron Behiri, Mitchell Berger, Sasha Berman, Sayem Kamal, Jordan Kaplan, Eli Klein, Tanishka Kumar, Jacob Silverman, Alex Rubin, and Dana Wang.
The mock trial team is an extracurricular activity offered by Roslyn High School; members are chosen via tryout at the beginning of each school year. Students compete in trial simulations that offer them the opportunity to take on the roles of prosecution and defense attorney, witness, and paralegal, helping them develop acting, public speaking, and critical thinking skills. They meet regularly with Ms. Elorriaga and Ms. Lisa Rossi Esq., an experienced local attorney, to practice making objections and carrying out persuading opening and closing statements.
“As a litigator for thirty plus years, I find it so rewarding to watch these amazing students grow into accomplished young attorneys with exceptional abilities of reasoning and argument,” said Ms. Rossi. “I’m so proud of how hard they worked in order to achieve this level of success.” Should the Roslyn team win the quarter-finals, they will advance to the semi-finals for an opportunity to compete in the final tournament.