This week’s female Athlete of the Week brought to you by Palisade Dino Mart is senior Annika Walla. Annika is one of the team captains on the speech and debate team. She is also involved in D.O.G.S., a student leadership program. She has been involved in speech and debate for 4 years. This season, Annika states how well it has been going, “we’ve been working really hard to get our team bigger” which has been a major improvement from past years. Annika keeps her priorities straight when it comes to managing everything. She has perfected time management being involved in IB, D.O.G.S, and speech and debate.

 She emphasizes how important it is to communicate with your teachers when you are managing multiple activities. Annika enjoys the learning part of speech and debate and being able to have an educated conversation and engage in those. She says “our speech and debate team has really become a family for me at school” as she has formed great friendships through speech and debate. Annika expresses how her biggest inspiration is her brother. “His focus in that (academics) encouraged me to push myself as far as I could.” 

She also states how she looked up to the captains on the speech and debate team her freshman year, and after hearing them debate she fell in love with it. One of Annikas greatest accomplishments was qualifying for nationals and competing there. Annika states “I think that’s my proudest thing right now, we have so many people placing, so many people who are going to be able to go to state this year,  and so many people who are qualified for nationals.” In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her friends, reading, and traveling with her family. Being a senior, Annika states how she will miss the environment and friendliness of speech and debate. Congrats Annika on Athlete of the Week!