She takes a deep, confident breath, looking out at the judges that are critiquing her performance. As she begins her speech, her words rise and fall, capturing everyone’s undivided attention. As she finishes her piece, applause fills the room, and senior Krissy Dearing knows that she just had one of her best performances yet.
Dearing won the district championship in Dramatic Interpretation and will represent the district at nationals in June in Phoenix, Arizona.
“I feel like you have to be very passionate about what you do,” Dearing said. “National qualifiers is an event that you cherish throughout the speech and debate community, and it’s just a factor of if you’re passionate about it and if you’re determined for it.”
Dearing has been participating in speech and debate for about four years as well as student council, theater, and ready writing. She spends time after school practicing with her coach and other speech students.
“Mr. Fugler has been a huge inspiration and he has always helped me with my pieces,” Dearing said. “He’s really what pushed me through the debate community to learn more and get more involved.”
In her freshman year, Dearing took an oral interpretation class that was dedicated to developing students’ skills in competitive acting. Since it was a small class, she got the opportunity to work with her coaches daily.
“I was able to work with her 1 on 1 for quite a bit and develop skills that are so important in being successful in the activity,” Fugler said. “I’m happy to say that through investing her time in oral classes early on when she was a freshman, it just became a very natural part process for her each year.”
She began in prose, an event in which competitors select a certain piece of literature and perform it. As she gained more experience, she moved into poetry for informative speaking and dramatic interpretation.
“I think that she already had such a great love of acting and theater,” Fugler said. “I think that this activity has given her more of an appreciation and love for the actual literature itself.”
Dearing won district every year she participated in the event. Additionally, she qualified for nationals throughout her high school career.
“I think it’s really cool to be a four time national qualifier,” Dearing said. “It’s definitely something to be proud of and I am proud of it so it’s just like getting an award for all the hard work put in.”
After she graduates, Dearing plans to attend UT Tyler and major in political science and minor in economics before she goes to pre-law. For grad school, Dearing plans to attend Baylor University for trial law and to get a further education in immigration law.
“My speech and debate career has definitely taught me how to research and how to obtain information for myself,” Dearing said. “It’s very important where you get your resources and information from, so it’s definitely just provided this inkling of information I didn’t know so it’s definitely just furthering my environmental gatherings.”
