Rylee Walter
A student and a teacher all rolled into one.
Rylee Walter has developed a love for speech and debate that is evident in her desire to teach others. A Whitworth University junior, Walter is double-majoring in English literature and speech communication, hoping to become a high school English teacher.
Growing up in Spokane, Walters attended North Central High School. Walter has lived in the same house for her entire life and also happens to live next door to her extended family. Walter spent a large amount of time with her grandparents. Her grandparents highly valued education and she loved to play “school.”
“I think it’s very cool that I grew up so close to my family,” Walter said. “They really have encouraged me to become a teacher.”
In high school, English was her favorite subject because she saw it as a valuable skill that you can learn and possess. Walter was involved with Girl Scouts in high school and it was there that she became friends with a girl who was a year older and who attended Gonzaga University. She was involved with speech and debate and told Walter that she thought she would enjoy it. Walter attended an interested meeting and she was “trapped.” Walter says that what truly intrigued her was the way that they can talk about whatever they wanted.
After graduation from high-school, Walter attended Washington State University for 5 weeks. After feeling homesick and out-of-place, Walter returned to Spokane to start school at Whitworth in the spring of 2015. Walter contacted her high-school debate coach and began volunteering as a debate coach at North Central.
It was because of the positive experience Walter had in high school with debate that pushed Walter to join the Forensics team at Whitworth. She was pushed out of her comfort zone and challenged with every tournament she attended but rose to the challenge every time.
“Whitworth Speech and Debate has a culture of success around it and it really motivated me to do better.” Walter said. “Everyone worked hard and everyone had the same goal.”
Walter describes debate as “mental track and field.” Much like the points system that track and field uses, speech and debate is reliant on the individual’s performance but also there is a team dynamic that is present.
There is an interesting dynamic that comes along with being on a speech and debate team but also being a coach. Walter says that the major difference that she sees is how one understands debate and how it works. She is able to talk with students about what different events they should do and she is able to speak to their individual gifts and strengths. This was different for Walter because she was used to coaches doing that for her. She was given an entirely different perspective.
