Dobyns-Bennett graduate Kyah Powers of ETSU Rhodes finalist

JOHNSON CITY — A Dobyns-Bennett High School graduate, who plans to become an attorney, recently became the third Rhodes Scholar finalist in a row from East Tennessee State University. However, Kyah Powers is not just a representative of ETSU, Kingsport's education system, that city or her extended family. She attended elementary school in Washington County at Ridgeview Elementary, middle school in Sullivan County at Innovation Academy, which no longer exists, high school in Kingsport and college in Johnson City. Her father lives in Nickelsville, Virginia, her mother in Johnson City, and she has family from Duffield, Virginia and a family background on both sides from throughout Southwest Virginia. SHE GOT EMAIL Powers first learned of her finalist status with the Rhodes program Oct. 27 at her aunt's house in Gray, near the house of one set of grandparents. The other grandparents lived in Blountville. According to an ETSU news release and Powers in an interview, the 21-year-old senior was sitting in her aunt's living room, sorting through old childhood materials, when she glanced down at her phone and noticed a single word: "Rhodes." "We all went silent," she said in the news release. She opened the email. Then the words stopped coming. Excited tears flowed. "I don't come from a background where this is something I would have expected for myself," Powers, an ETSU senior double majoring in political science and philosophy with a minor in environmental studies, said in the release. "I had been waiting on the email," she said in a Six Rivers Media interview Thursday of something she knew would come sometime the week of Halloween. "It is days checking your inbox over and over again." Powers, a 2022 D-B graduate, is a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, which the news release said aside from honor for Powers makes ETSU one of the few institutions in the nation to produce three consecutive Rhodes finalists in as many years. For the record, winners get a free ride at Oxford University in England for a master's degree. Powers, who has a current 3.95 grade point average at ETSU and is on track to graduate from there in May of 2026, said she plans to seek a master's degree in philosophy and international relations at Oxford if she wins the Rhodes scholarship, then attend law school. If she doesn't become a Rhodes winner, she said she won't be able to afford the master's degree and plans to go straight into law school. She took the national entrance exam for law school Saturday, Nov. 8. Her goal is to get a law degree and focus on international jurisprudence theory or the philosophy of law, basically focusing on internationally among nations. She also credited Innovation Academy, initially a Kingsport-Sullivan County middle school program that morphed into a strictly Sullivan County one, for helping with her journey thus far. She also won a four-year scholarship to ETSU through the Roan Scholars Leadership Program and benefitted from ETSU's Prestigious Awards office. BEYOND ACADEMICS Outside of strictly academic endeavors, she was a member of the D-B band, playing flute, and still plays with the ETSU symphony wind ensemble. In addition, said was a member of the Mountain Empire Children's Choral Academy in grades K-12. Outside of music, she worked in youth engagement for the Coalition for Kids and as a federal projects research intern for Appalachian Voices. She also served as governor in the 2025 Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature. Powers, an ETSU Elevates grant winner, also has served as a Intercollegiate House of Representatives delegate and received a Carlisle Award before becoming speaker of the House for the intercollegiate group. In addition, she was a second-place winner in ETSU Elevates earlier this year, a program in which students showcase projects they developed to address regional challenges. GOING TO KANSAS CITY SOON Powers is scheduled to fly to Kansas City Nov. 14 for a reception and then find out Nov. 15 if she is one of two winners from the region. Ironically, Nov. 15 is also the date of the Grand National Bands of America finals D-B marching band hopes to make in Indianapolis. Powers said usually 12 to 16 finalists are named from the District 12 region of Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee but she won't know how many are in the group until she gets to Kansas City. Of 16 districts across the U.S., no more than two winners are chosen each year. Breaking news Thursday, the day she was interviewed by Six Rivers Media, was that the Federal Aviation Administration is asking airlines to reduce their passenger service offerings by 10% in light of the continuing federal government shutdown. However, she said cancelled flights won't keep her from Missouri. If Powers can't get a flight, she said she'll either get a rented van to drive to Kansas City or consider other options. "Or I'll take a Greyhound. I'm not above that," she said.