Kate Falkenstien has seen her share of success in forensics and is preparing for more.

Free State High School student Kate Falkenstien shows off her awards won at the International Career Development Conference in this May file photo. Falkenstien will compete in the National Forensics League national tournament this month in Wichita.

During her just-completed junior year at Free State High School, she garnered seven first-place medals in extemporaneous speaking, and won a recent state championship in the event. She is hoping to ride that wave into the National Forensics League national tournament on June 18-22 in Wichita.

She qualified for the nationals by placing first in domestic extemporaneous speaking at the East Kansas National Forensics League qualifying tournament.

In extemporaneous speaking, a competitor draws a question on domestic or international topics and has 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech answering the question.

“I think a lot of extemporaneous speaking is just being comfortable on your feet,” she said.

About a month ago, Falkenstien was named a first-place winner in the retail marketing category of the International Career Development Conference in Florida. The conference was in conjunction with Distributive Education Clubs of America, a student organization that focuses on marketing, management and entrepreneurship.

Falkenstien has said she plans to study political science or law in college. She said she’s also interested in communications because it is the common thread among DECA, debate and forensics.

Falkenstien attributes a lot of her medals in forensics to the work she has done building her files on current events – keeping up to date on magazines such as U.S. News and World Report and newspapers such as the Christian Science Monitor. Topics for this year’s questions at nationals will include homeland security, the American justice system, the environment and U.S. politics.

Falkenstien must become familiar with all of the articles so she is ready to write and memorize the speech.

“I have a lot more files than the other teams,” she said.

Jo Ball, Free State High School’s forensics and debate coach, said the two were working on practice speeches and strategies for certain topics. Overall, she said she was pleased with Falkenstien’s performance this year.

“She has done really well for us, and she represents the school well,” Ball said.