Bringing the Empire Experience full circle. (ft. Christian Mancino)
May I Be Heard? Episode 4, featuring three-time Empire competitor, Blue Shirt Lead, Top Mock Grad, and #EmpireOnline A/V guru, Christian Mancino.
If you competed, judged, coached or Blue Shirted at any of Empire’s online competitions, it’s likely that you interacted with this week’s May I Be Heard guest. From behind the scenes, he helped run our virtual software, PROcess; assigned judges to courtrooms; led judge orientations; resolved tech issues during competition rounds; and even assisted our case committee. His name is Christian Mancino, and he’s an indispensable part of the Empire Family.
In two years, Christian went from competing at Empire to working for us full-time. His first Empire experience was in 2017, when he competed at Empire San Francisco. He became more involved with the organization in 2020, when he helped support the North Suburban Bar Association’s (NSBA) Invitational partnership between Empire, his high school (Niles West), and the NSBA.
Christian ran tech for the event’s Opening and Closing ceremonies. Switching between presenters, slides and music, Christian made running a ceremony look like a walk in the park.
“I was pretty nervous about running a ceremony for the first time, so I set up a giant checklist of buttons I’d have to click or screens I’d have to display,” said Christian “Since then, I’ve run most of the ceremonies for competitions that partnered with Empire, and then we finished off the season with Empire ATL.”
In addition to becoming Empire’s resident A/V tech, Christian also worked as a Blue Shirt and Blue Shirt Lead. He oversaw individual courtrooms for approximately 10 competitions.
“Being a Lead was really fun because I got to interact with 4-5 Blue Shirts each round, got to hear about what was going on in each trial, and got to chat with fellow Leads and the Tab Officers.”
That is, most of the time it was really fun. When the power went out in an entire county during a regional competition, though, things got a little stressful.
“No one knew what was going on at first, and we were getting calls from pretty much every coach, judge, and Blue Shirt at the same time,” Christian said, recalling the Ventura County Mock Trial Competition in Southern California. “We eventually figured it out and ended up pushing the competition back a night. But that was probably the craziest situation we had during the season.”
What was the best part of the experience?
“The best part was getting to see all my fellow Blue Shirts and participants,” Christian said. “There were so many times throughout the season where I would be managing a round of a team I used to compete against, or I would see a judge that used to overrule all my objections and they would end up being extremely friendly and kind.”
Remembering every judge that’s ever overruled you? We know the feeling.
Once he knew that he liked working for Empire, Christian began helping out full-time. Christian got connected to his college, Furman University, through its partnership with Empire. Now, Furman sponsors Christian’s full-time internship with Empire.
What does Christian do through his internship?
“Lots of fun stuff. Reaching out to coaches about the fall season,” Christian said. “Trying to find ways to improve PROcess. I’m looking forward to one project where I’ll learn more about copyright and help file some documents for Empire’s cases.”
After all of his experience with Empire, Christian knows the organization better than almost anyone else. You could even say he’s an expert. (If anyone is ever needed to testify on behalf of Empire, we know who to call.)
So, with all that expertise, how would Christian sum it all up?
“I just want to say how grateful I am to Empire,” Christian said. “Getting to compete in high school and travel to the different competitions was really eye-opening for me on a lot of pretty intense case material topics. Now getting to help give the Empire experience to others, it's awesome to have come full circle and I hope to see Empire continue to help empower new students every year.”
We hope so, too. And we’re so grateful to alums, like Christian, who help make it possible for us to carry out our mission.
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Watch Christian’s full interview playback here.
Ready for your own Empire Experience? Applications are OPEN for the 2021 Cyberspace Season this Fall. To learn more and how to apply, click here.