By Matt Gleckman

He may call it luck, but David Feela is doing something right.

For the third year in a row, Feela, a Cortez High School English teacher, has coached one of his students to the state championship in the Voice of Democracy contest. This is a feat which, officials say, has never occurred before in the contest’s history.

"I’ve just been fortunate enough to get good students for the last three years," says Feela.

This year’s state champion was MCHS senior and first-time contestant, Janelle Knox, who rounded out the three-peat with her speech on "America’s Role For The Next Century," the theme for this year’s contest.

During her speech, Knox pulls listeners in and takes them on a roller-coaster ride through the experiences that she encountered as a foreign exchange student in Germany during her junior year.

"I thought that my trip to Germany was something that I could tie in with democracy," said Knox.

In meeting with other kids from around the world, the Cortez student learned the value of a democratic society and how, at times, it is taken for granted in the United States.

"These people made me realize that, as a child, sealed within the good will and flourishing nature of a powerful democracy, I had somehow failed to see the harsh realities of tyranny that exist in the outside world, realities that are nothing new," Knox wrote in her essay.

The contest was begun by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) organization in the early to mid 1940’s as part of a search for quality radio broadcasters. Sixty years later Voice of Democracy serves as an opportunity for students to hone their writing and speaking skills, meet other kids from across the state, win scholarship money for college and possibly travel across the country.

As the Colorado state champion, Janelle has already won local and state scholarship money and will receive an all- expense-paid trip to Washing-ton D.C. in April where she will compete against 53 other students in the national contest.

While in Washington D.C. Knox will get to visit several historical sites, meet with congressmen and senators and may also have the opportunity to meet with President Clinton.

Winners at the national level will receive $25,000 for first place, $16,000 for second place, $10,000 for third and several other large runner-up scholarships.

"I think that Janelle has a good shot at placing well at the national level," said Feela. "The sophistication of her speech was far beyond the level of many of the other speeches that I heard — even at the state level."

According to both teacher and student, this sophistication can be attributed to Knox’s year of foreign travel, her 4 years of dedication to the speech and debate team and some solid coaching. "Mr. Feela is really good at pulling the material out of you," Knox said.

Along with her recent success in the Voice of Democracy contest, Knox has also become one of only forty high school students across the state of Colorado to receive the prestigious Boettcher Scholarship. This merit-based award covers nearly all college expenses for the recipient for up to eight semesters as long as the student attends a Colorado college or university and maintains at least a 3.0 grade point average.

Despite some pressure from two older siblings, who want her to follow in their footsteps and attend the University of Colorado, the high school senior says she is keeping her options open.

"Wherever I do end up," said Knox, "I think I would like to study political science and medicine."

At last Tuesday’s school board meeting, board president Steve Hinton presented Knox with an award "in recognition of outstanding achievement."