Every year, the National Speech and Debate Association’s Academic All-American award is given to students who show great success in competitive speech and debate, while also maintaining their academic success and character. Fewer than 1,000 students earn this award out of the roughly 141,000 who participate each year.

This year, BSM had their own winner of the award in junior Ronan Brew. Brew has participated in speech since he came to BSM in seventh grade, and with the help of his mother, Maura, an English teacher and the speech director at BSM, he has had great success in the program. “The award is cumulative from when I started speech until now. I racked up enough points to qualify for it along with my GPA, which is a 3.7 minimum,” Brew said.

The speech team, as a whole, had a lot of success this year as well despite being placed in one of the most difficult sections in the country. “Our team was a little smaller this year, but we still held our own against the larger teams we compete against. Overall, I think it was a great season,” Brew said.

The award is very prestigious, and it puts Brew at the top one percent of students across the nation. He is the first Red Knight to earn this great achievement. Next year, Brew and the Red Knight speech team hope to recreate the success that they had this season