Rachel West is one North Central College student who makes doing it all look easy.
While West is currently succeeding in academics and extracurriculars, she had a much different plan for herself when she first decided to come to North Central.
Intending to be a physics major, West began meeting with science professors, until she realized that she does not like chemistry. Thus, in thinking of a new career path, she pondered the people who have influenced her throughout her life, landing on her high school choir director, a North Central alumnus.
“There is no part of music that I can possibly say I hate,” West says, describing how she chose a music education degree.
West’s college path changed even more during her freshman year when she was giving a speech in class and John Stanley, advisor of the speech team, pulled her aside and encouraged her to join Forensics.
Thus, with music and Forensics in her life, West carried on the next three years devoting herself to both.
“I just love both of them too much to think that the cons outweigh the pros,” West explains. “Some people say that I make balancing speech and music look easy. It’s not easy in any way, shape or form,” she says, describing her hectic schedule. “The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that other people are benefitting from this.”
Although West has quite a busy schedule, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I can’t possibly walk away from something that I know could change people’s lives, so I’ve made it a huge part of mine.”
Forensics
Coming into Forensics as a freshman, West was told that she would not amount to much in competitions. In Forensics, members of the team go to tournaments all across the country for up to three weekends per month, with one state competition and two national competitions per year, the National Forensics Association (NFA) and the American Forensics Association (AFA).
To go to the NFA National Championship Tournament, the competitors must break into a final in a tournament during the year, and to go to the AFA National Individual Events Tournament, they must break into a final more than three times, and place in the top three each time. Therefore, it is not expected of underclassmen to get into these national competitions.
However, West did not take this for answer. “I’m competitive with myself,” she says. “I devoted myself. I just told myself that the reward and the satisfaction that I would get in the end would be worth the tiring nights.”
Therefore, West started her Forensics career at the biggest competition of the fall.
“I was thrown into this world,” West says. “Seeing performances there in the final rounds really inspired me to continue to do this.”
I realized that this part of me can affect people-Rachel West, ’16
With this attitude, West became one of the first freshman on her team to go to AFA, and placed top six in the nation with an informative speech on adjustable eye glasses.
Now, two years and seven combined national and state awards later, West carries eight events throughout the year, a larger amount than most, typically breaking into the finals at every tournament.
“I am very much an overachiever when it comes to this, so I carry more than usual,” West says.
Another speech that West has gained national recognition for this year, aside from her second-place humorous “after dinner speech,” is one concerning the gay and transgender panic defense, a persuasive speech for which she placed fifth in the nation at this year’s AFA.
West also does interpretation, otherwise known as acting.
“What I really love about speech acting is that you actually have to be the character,” West says, describing one duet acting performance she did in which she played a man, which she says is one of the hardest things that she has ever done.
As for the impromptu category, West says,“I always joke that I hate (impromptu) because it’s so stressful, but it’s one of my favorites because there’s nothing to memorize. Essentially, there’s nothing to mess-up, because it’s whatever you believe.”
West believes that all speech team members should participate in this event because of its importance.
“Impromptu as a speech event is the key to communication. How do you just talk to people and convince them that you know what you’re talking about?”
West has also taken some of her work from Forensics and brought it outside of the speech world. Last year, she was chosen to do a Rall Symposium presentation with the research she gather on antibiotic resistance.
West explains all of the work that goes into the speech team is something that most would not consider. She said that even during her free time, she can’t quite escape the speech world.
“It also takes a lot of research,” West says. “I think that’s one thing that people don’t realize about speech teams, is that it’s very academic, to a point where it’s extremely nerdy. So in your own free time, you just research things that are going on in the world. Then you write an entire paper on it, memorize that paper, and you give it as a speech every weekend.”
With all of the work that West puts into Forensics and the recognition she has received for it, she is not taking any of it for granted.
“The awards, to me, mean that someone believed in me, and I really appreciate that,” West explains. “It’s not that it’s second place, or that I was so close to first, it was that out of 400 people, you thought that my message was something worth sharing.”
Overall, West says that the people around her are what inspires her.
“How people interact with each other, and how they get along with each other: That really inspires me to either be a better person, or learn from their mistakes, or even make a joke out of it,” West says. “I carry other people’s interactions in myself, and then I share that.”
Music
When West began meeting with faculty to plan out her time at North Central College, she says that they convinced her that if she had a passion for music and a passion to teach, that teaching music is where she belonged.
Thus, as a music education major, West’s already hectic schedule is made even busier.
West starts her days by going to Naperville Central High School to teach and observe students in the music classes.
West explains that, while she wants to teach music, her trajectory has change slightly from when she first declared a music education major. She now wants to teach at the collegiate level so that she can have more time with the students.
“I want to take the skills that I’ve learned in college and carry that on to other people who may not be confident in those skills.”
Aside from playing the piano and violin, West also sings in the woman’s choir and the a cappella group “So Nata Problem.”
Overall, West says that her favorite part about music is the therapy it gives her.
“Whenever I’m feeling off, or even when I’m having a really great day, music has the ability to drown out everything else around me and just put me in this zone where the only thing I think about is music, and I carry that into speech.”
The effect that music can have on people is something that West really enjoys about it. She told a story about when her mother and grandmother attended one of her musical performances and her grandmother was moved to tears.
“She’s so strong, and she cried,” West says of her grandmother. “I realized that this part of me can affect people.”
