Our Scrapbook
An inaugural member of the American Mock Trial Association, NUMT has been one of the premier Mock Trial programs in the nation over the past 35 years. We pride ourselves on teaching new members — no matter their experience level — the foundations of public speaking, mock trial, and legal procedure. We’ve finished in the top 10 in the nation four of the past five years, most recently placing 10th in 2023, 8th in 2022, 10th in 2021 and 9th in 2019. (The 2020 National Championship was cancelled due to COVID-19.)
Along with our program’s success, we’ve had many individual members recognized for their performances. In recent National Championships, eight separate Wildcats brought home All-American honors, along with many other members picking up impressive awards on the way there.
Check out some photos of our program and read the captions to get to know a little more about us:
2023-2024
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK!
Our fall and winter teams were all over the map this year! We traveled the country to compete in tournaments including Case Western in Ohio, Harvard in Boston, The Ohio State University in Columbus, WashU in St. Louis, Duke in Raleigh, UCLA in Los Angeles, and Georgetown in D.C.
DREAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM TEAM!
NUMT celebrates together and learns together! We are a community of passionate performers and lifelong friends because we support each other every step of the way. Coming from all backgrounds and skill levels, each member brings something unique to our team, fostering an environment of creativity, growth, and mutual respect.
2022-2023:
We traveled the country…
Our fall and winter teams traveled the country to compete in the some of the most fun and competitive tournaments including Tufts in Boston, UCLA in Los Angeles, The Ohio State University in Columbus, UCI in Irvine, and UF in Gainesville.
We hosted amazing tournaments…
We hosted our annual Mock at the Rock fall invitational (and painted the rock to welcome teams from all over the country) and Evanston regionals!
And We had fun doing it all as a family.
NUMT is first and foremost a family <3 We compete together, we travel together, and we grow together. With weekly all-programs where everyone gets to see each other and bonding activities, NUMT quickly becomes a second family for every member.
2021-2022:
WE excitedly TRANSITIONED BACK TO IN-PERSON MOCK TRIAL…
One of our winter teams, “Cinnamon,” took a picture after one of their rounds at Regionals, where they proceeded to qualify out and earn a spot at the next competitive tournament, ORCS!
WhEre we had lots of fun competing…
Two of our fall teams competed at a highly competitive tournament, Mumbo Jumbo, with some of our toughest and most talented opponents in the country!
BONDING…
…AND TRAVELING!!!
Our team traveled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for the National Mock Trial Tournament where they ended up in eighth place, with two additional individual awards! Our team is so talented <3
Some of the many fun places our team was able to travel to for tournaments included: Tufts in Boston, Rhodes College in Memphis, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, The Ohio State University in Columbus and Duke University in Durham.
2020-2021:
DESPITE UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES DUE TO THE PANDEMIC, WE HAD A GREAT YEAR ON ZOOM, FILLED WITH COMPETITIVE SUCCESS…
…ANd lots of fun!
Once WE were ALL FULLY vaccinated, we were able to meet in-person for the first time in over a year!
WE HAD A TEAM PHOTO SHOOT AT THE LAKE…
…AND SAID GOODBYE TO OUR wonderful SENIORS.
2018-2020:
we are hardworking
NUMT practices several times a week, but it never feels like work. While we’re coming up with case theory, parsing through legal documents, and writing witness examinations, we’re also hanging out with our best friends. During the fall we have unstacked teams, like the one you see above, where the senior members of the team welcome new members to our program and teach them the skills of mock trial.
Every so often, NUMT takes the free Intercampus shuttle down to Northwestern’s law school in downtown Chicago to work with our coaches, who often live and work in the city. On the drive down, we usually edit and practice our scripts before showing them to the coaches, but on the drive back to campus after practice is over, we spread out across the mostly-empty bus to do our homework together, listen to music, and hangout.
Outside of practice, we dominate the courtroom. Our teams travel across the country, from competitions as close as the Daley Center in downtown Chicago or the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to as far as New Haven, Connecticut, Atlanta, Georgia, and San Francisco, California, and we pick up hardware all along the way.
we are successful
Two of our winter 2019 season teams pose triumphantly, having just qualified out of their Regional tournament to Open Round Championships with an 8-0 record and a 7-1 record, but their story doesn’t end there.
Our five seniors from the class of 2019 pose with once again two trophies. After Regionals, both our teams were one of the top 5 teams at their ORCS that qualified to the 2019 National Championship Tournament in Philadelphia. This solidified NUMT as one of three programs in the country to send the maximum two teams to nationals two years in a row.
Less than 10% of teams in the American Mock Trial Association make it to nationals, and out of the 44 teams there, both NUMT teams placed in the upper half of their bracket, with one team earning a 9th place finish. Olivia O’Brien ‘21 also became an All American Witness, winning the highest individual award possible in AMTA.
However, we don’t just get awards for winning. Jonathan DeBruin ‘20 poses with our Spirit of AMTA (nicknamed SPAMTA) award. The award is given out at each tournament to a team that goes out of their way to be kind and cordial to their opponents.
we look great in suits.
Team Bubbles, one of our unstacked fall 2018 teams, poses at the Blue Squirrel Invitational in Philadelphia, the same courtroom where several of the team’s members would go on to compete in once more at the 2019 national tournament!
Team Blossom, another one of our fall 2018 teams, poses at a tournament in Columbus, Ohio.
we are a family.
Some members of Team Colbert, one of our stacked 2019 winter teams, pose together at their Regional tournament in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Team Bubbles eats Five Guys together after a long day of competing.
Team Buttercup poses together after a fifth place finish at UIUC holding the real trophy from the weekend: a stolen loaf of bread from Sargent Dining Hall used for snacking between rounds.