Katy Dorrell, senior, has been involved with the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) since freshman year, and this past month received the award for Student of the Year in the East Kansas district.

There are several districts in the NSDA, and the East Kansas district holds 18 schools.

Each of the 18 schools holds one vote to select a student to represent the district.

This year the schools selected Dorrell, the first student from her school to have a nomination for the award.

“This award is not something we take lightly,” Jo Ball, forensics and debate coach, said. “We look for students who truly embody the Code of Honor.”

The Code of Honor states that each member will uphold the tenents of integrity, humility, respect, leadership and service.

Dorrell said, “I wasn’t expecting this at all. There are so many talented people in the district who all deserve the award.”

Later in the year, all the students who won Student of the Year in their respective districts will be reviewed by the national office of NSDA to determine the finalists for the national Student of the Year.

From there, the finalists will be interviewed by a committee of coaches who will then select the Student of the Year for the nation.

In addition, Dorrell qualified for nationals in speech and drama, for the third year. She qualified in three events but can only compete in one event, Model Congress. The other tow events Dorrell qualified for was domestic extemporaneous speech and Lincoln- Douglas debate.

Dorrell has gone to semi-finals at nationals and hopes to go even further in this year’s competititon.