Governor Laura Kelly encouraged middle school and high school students attending Emporia State University’s Constitution Day to take some lessons from the document as they work in group settings or learn more about government in general.
Kelly gave the keynote address to around 500 students, many from the KVOE listening area but some from as far away as the Kansas City metro area. She says the art of compromise that was used to flesh out the Constitution was important in the late 1700s and is still important today.
Kelly started with a brief lesson about how the Constitution was formed.
Kelly says American citizens have a responsibility to get involved in government matters. She urged the roughly 500 students to register to vote if they are eligible — and to vote in every election that comes up during their lifetimes.
Kelly did not stay to take interviews from the media, but she gave students a roughly 10-minute question-and-answer session at the end of her speech.
Kelly joins an impressive list of Constitution Day speakers over the past decade at ESU, including Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier, civil rights attorney and Martin Luther King confidant Fred Gray and former chair of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers.
Photos by Chuck Samples/KVOE News
{gallery}Governor at Constitution Day 091719{/gallery}
