Terah Nohl was a rising junior last summer when she decided she wanted to do something more than just watch K-Dramas at home, study for online summer college classes or sleep in until 10 p.m.

“I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to learn more about Mock Trial, and so I just kind of searched up Mock Trial summer camps,” Nohl said. “Because I learned I was going to be next year’s president, I thought I should get a good idea of what I needed to do to prepare.”

It was a Monday, June 24, when the $350 Mock Trial Summer Camp started at Chapman University’s Law School building. Sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County, five-day event lasted from 1-5 p.m.

While signing up for the camp, Nohl simultaneously applied for a scholarship opportunity, resulting in the camp being fully paid for by the non-profit organization. 

“Since I was one of the few members remaining in Mock Trial here at Sunny Hills and I also knew I was going to be president for the following school year, I wanted to get a good sense of what it was about to help me lead the club and better prepare our future members for competitions,” Nohl said.

The first four days featured workshops with lawyers, college students and guest speakers who helped sharpen camp members’ skills in representing either the prosecution or defense side during a mock trial, she said.

But what captivated Nohl the most was the last day — the mock trial itself in which the rising junior signed up for the position of the defense as one of the middle attorneys. By the end of the day, she said she couldn’t stop thinking about what she experienced.

“Seeing how well the other [participants] did and how experienced they were inspired me to want to be better and do well,” she said. “Then, when the judge read the verdict in our favor, I’ll never forget me and my team jumping up and down; it was as if we had just won a million dollars.”

That’s the moment that became the catalyst for Nohl to start her campaign to revive Mock Trial at Sunny Hills, which in the 2024-2025 school year she succeeded in forming one team of 18 people to compete for the first time in Orange County for the first time.

The California state seal hung in the center inside Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law courtroom. Underneath sat a blonde woman in her 40s wearing the stereotypical black judge’s robe.

“All rise”  

The judge called the court to order. Two groups stood in front of her — the prosecution on the right and the defense on the left.

Behind the jury box sat her team in the spectators zone, watching intently as they judged the case and mentally prepared to participate in their trial. 

“I was among the first batch to observe intently and score each individual’s performance,” Nohl said. “What I liked most about doing that was how fascinating it was to see the whole process of a court trial going on because it was my first time.”

It took about 80 minutes for the team to complete their trial before it was her turn. 

“When I was actually participating in [a trial] myself, I just found that it was so cool and fascinating because it was unlike anything I’ve done before,” said Nohl, who played the role of the defense. “I thought, ‘Wow, I really want others to experience this kind of unique opportunity like I’m doing right now.’”

Gallery • 2 Photos

The club made its first appearance in an article from the Nov. 19, 1992, issue of The Accolade that highlighted how the club was trying the fictitious People vs. Bell case.

Four days later on Tuesday, July 2, Nohl — still buzzing with excitement from her camp experience — said the next step was to find a new adviser for the school’s Mock Trial club since during the 2023-2024 school year, social science teacher Robert Bradburn was only the group’s supervisor in name.

The year prior, Nohl had already gathered a vice president, secretary and social media manager who were ready to assist her mission to form the club’s cabinet.

And although teachers are on summer break and usually not contractually obligated to attend to school matters, the rising junior was still willing to take that risk to reach out to social science teacher Kelsie Castro.

“I heard [from my mom’s co-worker] how wonderful of a teacher Mrs. Castro was and how supportive she was toward her students,” Nohl said. “She just sounded like someone I really wanted to work with.”

It just so happened that Castro was teaching summer school, so the teacher said she opened Nohl’s email the same day it was sent. Nevertheless, she decided not to respond right away. 

“I took a couple of days to think about it, to make sure it would be something that I would be able to follow through with, but it didn’t take me long at all [to agree to help],” she said.

Eight days after Nohl’s initial email, Castro sent one back on Wednesday, July 10, telling the student she would be willing to help out as Mock Trial’s new adviser.

Despite not having any Mock Trial experience, the instructor said she considered this club a good fit for her because her husband and in-laws have background in the legal profession, though she declined to elaborate.

“I was excited and honored when asked to be the adviser,” Castro said. “I’ve been asked to advise a lot of different clubs through the years, but this one was really a unique and exciting opportunity. … I know that [mock trial is] something that can really open the door for students to build connections for their future career…it’s also just a great team building experience.”

Nohl read her response the day she received it. 

“I was elated, thankful, and also really relieved that I was able to secure an advisor before the school year started,” Nohl said.

Following their email exchange, on Monday, Aug. 12, Nohl emailed Castro saying she would visit her sometime that week at lunch or after school to formally introduce herself, express her vision for the club, and discuss getting involved with competitions, Nohl said.  

The next steps were gathering the 10-15 students minimum team required in order to participate in competitions by promoting it through Instagram, the morning announcements, word of mouth and asking teaches to share club events on their Google classrooms. 

The Associated Student Body’s adviser, David Fenstermaker, said school officials agreed to provide the funding — $1,100 — as seed money for the club to register to compete later in the fall semester. The club would have to raise that amount in the next school year to be able to compete again.

Seven days from the first day of the fall semester on Tuesday, Aug. 20, Mock Trial held its first meeting in Castro’s room, Room 25.

“My first plan was really to promote Mock Trial well, and share about how it’s a good opportunity if you’re interested in law [or acting],” Nohl said. “As we advertise, we said if you’re interested in acting, if you’re interested in public speaking, and just really, even if you don’t want to be a lawyer or anything, this is good for your public speaking skills and development.”

A total of 15 students attended the club’s first meeting that occurred even before club rush had taken place. The turnout was impressive compared to last year’s final meeting, where only five members were present.

“As a cabinet member of our Mock Trial club, it was awesome to see the classroom filled with students who came to our first meeting of the year and shared their interest in mock trial,” said junior Audrey Lee, the club’s social media coordinator. 

Many new and old faces arrived to learn more about the club and potentially get involved in its mission of achieving competitive status. 

“The first meeting was very informative and exciting because the club started again after a hiatus,” junior Joshua Lee said.

Although unsure of how successful the turnout would be, Nohl was ultimately pleased by the results. 

“Seeing all those people there made me feel really encouraged,” she said. “And, I think I remember being excited, nervous and then I just had a really good feeling about it.”

By the second meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 28, and its third meeting on Thursday, Sept. 10, the club began discussing and assigning Mock Trial roles and practices to get the club started. During those days, Nohl explained how members need to commit to two 1-hour after-school practices a week and lunch meetings every Tuesday.

In an email sent out on Wednesday, Sept. 25, by Castro to art teachers on campus and journalism teacher Tommy Li, she presented an opportunity for three journalists and three artists to apply for a different part of the competition. Although they would not be there to officially support the team or interact with it during trials, it serves as an opportunity for students who attend competing schools to get involved. 

“Since our team is going to compete (for the first time in a while) I wanted to pass this information along to you regarding the annual Art & Journalism contests that they hold during competition season to share with your students if you think this is something they would be interested in,” said Catrso in her email.

In the long run, that gave students 3 months to prepare for the club’s first tournament, which started on Thursday, Nov. 7, and continued the following week on the 14th and then another five days later on the 19th, culminating two days after that on the 21st.

During the competition, the team faced Rosary High School on the first day, followed by Santa Ana High School on the second day, Orange Lutheran on the fourth day and concluded with Garden Grove High School on the final day. 

The first and third days of the competition were dedicated to the prosecution competing against the opposing defense, while the second and fourth days were when the defense had the opportunity to display their skills. During the trial, Nohl played the role of the defense’s opening attorney. 

“Seeing my vision from the summer camp come to life felt like a dream to me, even now it feels like a dream,” she said. “Just seeing how far we’ve come from, almost going from Ground Zero to being at competitions all in less than a year after I became president, that was just really amazing… also I just felt so much gratitude for each of our members, because I know how hard each of them worked.”

Because the team won only one of the four rounds, as opposed to the three wins needed to qualify for the next stage, competition season came to a close for the rest of the school year, Castro said.

“Every round was close,” the Mock Trial adviser said. “It was fractions of a point sometimes between our school and the other school, so I am very proud of our performance.”

Junior Edward Galvez, a member of the team and recipient of the Outstanding Witness Award from the contest, said regardless of the outcome, he’s gained a positive experience.

“It is very exciting seeing and being a part of the mock trials first competition in about 30 years,” Galvez said. “With Terah’s leadership right now, I see the club continuing to grow.”

Another club member who participated in the November tournament was junior Sophia Gentile.

She had joined the club her freshman year but initially only stayed for one semester because of the club’s inactivity.

Gentile did not decide to rejoin the club until early August of this year after Nohl inspired her to do so. 

“[Terah] said she was going to be president this year and told me I should definitely try out because [she knows I] want to be an attorney,” Gentile said. “So, I did tryouts and then became a closing attorney.”

Gentile said she is impressed with how far the club has come, given that only she, Nohl, and two other members have prior experience with mock trials. 

Before the tournament, the club’s only experience competing against another team was in a scrimmage against Irvine High School on Saturday, Nov. 2.

“[The scrimmages] were a really great introduction to how a mock trial is supposed to look like,” Gentile said.

In the future, Nohl said she hopes the club will continue to grow and evolve as it eventually gets inherited by the current freshman and sophomore members after the current upperclassmen graduate.

“I really hope that it gets passed down and continues to be a good club [because] I don’t think we have anything else like it at Sunny Hills,” Gentile said. 

During this spring semester, without the pressure of competitions, club members said they plan to turn their focus onto events, fundraising to pay for next year’s competition fee, exercising their skills and expanding the club. 

One of those occurred on Tuesday, Feb. 18, after school. Orange County Superior Court judge Craig Griffin spoke to Mock Trial about his experiences as a lawyer, his current job and competition advice, Nohl said.

“It was a really great opportunity for our club, with him sharing a lot about his journey from high school to becoming a lawyer and then eventually a judge,” she said. “I think, not only for myself, but for a lot of our other members and even people who weren’t in the club, [who] came and listened …all just got a better idea of what the legal world would look like as we got older.”

The president was also pleased with how it provided a way to promote the club and expose non-club members to the legal field. 

Recently, the club has been working on a case that was used in a competition a few years ago, and on Tuesday, April 29th, after school in Castro’s toom, it held its own version of a mock trial.

“​​I felt proud to just see how well and how much they’ve grown in, and how confident our members have become,” the group’s leader said. “It was a little sad because I could almost sense the end of the year was coming… it feels just like yesterday [we] started everything.”

Next year, the club plans to begin preparing for competitions in August of next school year and consider gathering more than one attorney coach to help prepare the club as it moves toward its goal of advancing further into the competition. 

“We need that extra legal expertise to help us refine our direct and cross-examinations, our arguments and help us identify, make good objections and responses to them,” Nohl said. 

Currently, Castro and Nohl have discussed the possibility of Nohl continuing her role as president or holding a vote.

“I think I’ve learned so much this year as this year’s president, and I feel like if I was next year’s president, I would really be able to make [the club] better,” said Nohl who plans to major in law, economics or business in college. 

Before making any decisions, Nohl said she plans to meet with her cabinet members to decide whether an election will be held.  

As of right now, the club will continue to practice after school every Tuesday during lunch or after school in Room 25. 

“I am very confident that we’ve started a very strong foundation to continue some good momentum to stay active for a very long time,” Castro said. 

Mock Trial meets every Tuesday during lunch in Room 25. Anyone interested in joining can also contact Nohl at [email protected] or (562) 833-5423.