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BY SOPHIE GROMOWSKY PRINT CO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Gazing at her reflection in the hotel bathroom mirror, senior Kori Franklin carefully applies the final touches to her aquacolored eyeshadow. That evening, she, along with her 11 fellow contestants, would make her official debut into society at the AKA Debutante Ball.

Over the course of the past eight months, Franklin dedicated most of her weekends to preparing for the night’s presentation and the outcome of the competition – from formal dance training, to etiquette classes, to community service – but as she got ready in her hotel room, the furthest thing from her mind was who would be named the winner in just a few short hours.

“I was thinking about when I was going to see my family, kind of counting through my head how many of them were going to be there. And I was thinking about the other girls since this was the last time I was probably going to be hanging out with some of them,” Franklin said. “What wasn’t on my mind was who was going to win. That was the last thing I was thinking about.”

It turned out that the winner would be her – Franklin was crowned Miss Debutante 2022 of the 69th AKA Debutante Ball Nov. 25. The ball, hosted biennially by the Beta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Incorporated and the Ivy Community Service and Education Foundation Inc., serves to introduce deserving and outstanding young ladies as Debutantes to Kansas City society and award them with college scholarships.

“The ball is our presentation into society,” Franklin said. “We’re trained to dance, we go through an etiquette class and then it’s a formal presentation that our families can enjoy and see us get ready to basically become a woman.”

Franklin was inspired to participate in the Debutante Ball after attending the presentations of her cousins, Kendall and Kamryn Rogers, in the organization’s 2018 and 2019 ceremonies, respectively. Her aunt, Doris Rogers, also took part in the Debutante as a teenager.

“My aunt did it a long, long time ago, and it was always her dream that the oldest, Kendall, would do it,” Franklin said. “Then after Kendall did it, Kamryn decided she wanted to do it, and then after Kamryn won, I was like, ‘Oh I want to do it now, I want to oneup Kamryn.’”

Despite her ambitions to win, Franklin initially had reservations about participating in the competition due to rules in place that prohibited contestants from wearing their hair naturally. After being made aware of her concerns, the AKA committee agreed to reevaluate the rule, and ultimately made the decision to remove all guidelines regarding how contestants could wear their hair in an effort to continue to uplift black women through their annual ball.

“I could tell that a lot of the girls this year thought that that was really nice,” Franklin said. “Even the fact that there were a lot of escorts that had their hair braided, you’d never seen that before so I thought that was really cool.”

Though the ball itself took place in November, the competition and preparation process began all the way back in the spring of 2022. After completing the application and interview stages in March, Franklin spent the next several months fundraising and performing service in the community. The Debutantes also attended an exposition where they listened to women from the community speak about their careers in order to begin thinking about their own futures.

“One of the ladies was a principal, and she had studied in Canada and was just kind of talking about how education can bring you to different places,” Franklin said. “I really liked her part because it was very enlightening for me, as someone who wants to be a teacher. Knowing that just because you’re a teacher, you can also do other things from that career.”

Throughout the entire process, the girls were awarded points based on their adherence to a specified set of criteria, which included attendance and promptness to events, scholarship, attitude and character, personal appearance, community service, talent participation, fundraising and ticket sales.

“A lot of it was by showing up, which puts on a little bit of pressure because you can’t be late. You have to be on time, which is something that’s hard for me,” Franklin said. “You also had to have a great personality and be pretty outgoing because they wanted to see how you interacted with not only the other Debs, but also the community members that are part of AKA sorority.”

On the night of the ball, all 12 girls dressed in identical white gowns and elbow-length gloves. Before an audience of their families and friends, they performed two waltzes, one with their fathers and one with their escorts, as well as a praise dance, which served as a thank you tribute to their parents for allowing them to take part in the ball. The night concluded with the award ceremony, where Franklin took home the top prize.

“When they called her name it took everything in me to not break down and cry. Kori has worked so hard at being great. She is so modest and downplays all of the great things that she has accomplished and she gets mad if I boast about her accomplishments,” mother Micole Franklin said. “For everyone to hear how hard she has worked at everything that she does and for her to receive such an amazing honor along with a sizable scholarship felt amazing.”

Along with the title of Miss Debutante 2022, Franklin was awarded a $7,000 scholarship to put towards her college tuition.

“It felt very rewarding to win because I had put so much time and effort and energy into this for so many months,” Franklin said. “I really wanted to end it on a good note.”

You Should See Me In A Crown Dancing Queen Runs In The Family

At the end of the Debutante Ball, the Miss Debutante crown is placed on senior Kori Franklin’s head by last year’s winner, Emily Ervin. The title was accompanied by a $7,000 scholarship to put towards her college tuition. “It took them like three minutes to put it on my head. The crown itself was kind of fragile, it’s not super sturdy,” Franklin said. “It was heavy too, so I had to walk kind of lopsided to keep it up, and it kept falling off anytime I moved around.”

Spinning in time with the music, senior Kori Franklin and her father perform a waltz at the Debutante Ball. Franklin said that one of the best parts of her experience was getting to spend time with her dad every weekend. “My favorite part of the preparation process was our conversations after practice. We had to critique each other’s dancing,” father Ronnell Franklin said. “Kori thought she could dance better than me, however I had to show her I had the moves.”

After receiving her title, senior Kori Franklin smiles for photos with her cousins Kamryn and Kendall Rogers. Watching her cousins’ Debutante presentations inspired Franklin to take part in the ball herself. “I hope that this helped Kori to step out of her comfort zone a bit,” Kendall said. “There is no experience like this, and no matter how many times she was able to see a family member go through it, every experience is completely different.”