The Sumner Academy Forensics – Debate Team recently competed in the annual National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament June 18-23 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Competing from Sumner Academy at the 2017 tournament:
• Brandon Bush, Marley Lowe and Michael Franklin.
• Jaleon Brown, Suan Sonna, Simon Folsom and Mikayla Mielkus.
Among the Sumner Academy students receiving individual plaques during the competition:
• Marley Lowe – Program of Oral Interpretation, Octofinalist
• Michael Franklin – Student of the Year Finalist
• Brandon Bush – Dramatic Interpretation, Octofinalist
Franklin, who was a 2017 (East) District Student of the Year, was one of only six finalists for the 2017 William Woods Tate Jr., National Student of the Year award, out of 141,000 students.
Franklin and Sonna are three-time national qualifiers and Lowe and Bush are two-time national qualifiers.
High schoolers qualified for nationals by placing first or second in their events at the East Kansas National Qualifier in April at Shawnee Mission South High School. This was the first national tournament for Brown, Folsom and Mielkus.
There were more than 5,000 students from across the United States and multiple countries competing in this event, which is considered one of the nation’s largest academic competition for high school students.
– Story and photo from Melissa Fears, Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools communications director