Ansley Skipper ‘21 led the University of Virginia Mock Trial team to victory this spring. UVA took home the 28th American Mock Trial Association National Championship for the first time since 2017. As a team captain, Ansley says she entered the final round confident that she and her team had the skills to upset Hillsdale College team.
“We were doing the thing we love, at the very highest level, with the people we love the most,” she said. “Reflecting later, most of the team agreed that none of us felt very nervous. From the very beginning, each member of my team had his or her best performance ever — right when it mattered the most. More than anything, we were having fun.”
Ansley tried out for UVA’s Mock Trial team because of the friendships she formed with her classmates on the Mock Trial team at St. Mary’s.
“I knew I wanted to replicate the kind of dependable community I'd found on the mock trial team at SMS in college,” Ansley said.
Those three years prepared her well to thrive at the college level.
“I was used to competing on a high-level team that prepared and expected to win, one that practiced more than their opponents, one that relied on team mentality and individual sacrifice, one that insisted on playing and winning by-the-book. The SMS team was in many ways the high school equivalent of UVA's team.”
Once an award-winning St. Mary’s Mock Trial member, she now plans to spend the summer in an internship with the Tim Kaine Senate campaign in Alexandria, Virginia. Her involvement with the Cliosophic Society, Tatle, and Tennessee YMCA Youth in Government helped shape her passion for strategic communications and political campaigns.
“Dr. Dalton Lyon encouraged my passion for history and politics and sharpened my skills as a student of history and a participant in politics,” she shared. “Luckily, Shari Ray's teaching and mentorship made me fall in love with writing — and made me good at it.”
Does she have any advice for St. Mary’s Mock Trial team now that she’s a national champ?
“I suspect that the SMS mock trial team members already know this, but all of the hard work will be worth it,” Ansley said. “It's really important to realize how much more there is to learn and how much more room there is to grow and improve. The key is to surround yourself with people who genuinely want to help you do that.”
- Alumnae