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L. E. Norton Higher Education Student Award

Norton served as President of the Illinois Speech Association in 1950. He spent his career at Bradley University where he was a Professor of Speech and served as the Director of Forensics. His status among speech educators is legendary.  Norton was responsible for inventing many of the events we compete in today, including duo interpretation and informative speaking. While at Bradley, he founded Pi Kappa Delta, the honorary speech fraternity. The annual Bradley University Individual Events Invitational is named in his honor and is considered one of the most prestigious college individual events tournaments in the nation. He also coached the national championship GE College Bowl Team in 1969.This award is presented to an outstanding college major in speech or theatre who has made significant contributions to the college, community and discipline.


Past Winners of the L. E. Norton Higher Education Student Award

1995 Ari Fisz, University of Illinois

1996 Ann O’Connell

1997 Adam Jenkins, McKendree College

1998 No award presented

1999 Angela Townley, Illinois State University

2000 Chad Kaffer, McKendree College

2001 No award presented

2002 Kristen Linde, Illinois State University

2003 Jamie Hines, Illinois State University

2004 Mark Adams, Illinois State University

2005 Jennifer Shelton, Illinois State University

2006 Lindsay Sank, Illinois State University

2007 Christopher J. Schmid, Illinois State University

2008 Christine Doman, Illinois State University

2009 April Lowry, Illinois State University

2010 Anna Wright, Illinois State University

2011 Camille Yameen, Bradley University & Scott Pyle, Illinois State University

2012 Brian Rohman, Illinois State University & Lisa Roth, Northern Illinois University

2013 Kaybee Brown, Bradley University & Chandler Johnson, Illinois State University

2014 Clinton Brown, Eastern Illinois University

2015 Marques Brown, Eastern Illinois University & Yanelly Villegas, Northern Illinois University

2016 Emily Vajjala, Eastern Illinois University & Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

2017 Allison Metz, Illinois State University

2018 Matt DuPuis, Northern Illinois University

2019 Harry Bodell, Highland Community College

2020 No Award Given

2021 Starr Lee, Northern Illinois University

2022 Lavontae Morrow, University of Illinois Chicago

2023 Brenna Bretzinger, Northern Illinois University

Illinois Communication and Theatre Association

C/O Edward Schwarz

Prairie State College

202 S. Halsted St.

Chicago Heights, IL 60411

708-709-3688


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