Meet the Spearfish senior competing for Rising Star of the West

SPEARFISH, S.D. (KEVN) - Halle Fjelland was 10 years old when her family made the move from busy Chicago to small-town Spearfish, South Dakota.

“So, that was a big, big change. City life to a rural town but I kind of like it here and it’s more like a community and you feel more personable with everybody,” Fjelland.

Fjelland quickly made friends in her new home and has since picked up a number of hobbies including soccer where she plays, refs, and coaches youth soccer.

“Super involved with soccer. That’s one of my favorite things,” explained Fjelland.

Off the field, Fjelland is passionate about speech and debate acting as the captain of their team.

“So, so thankful and grateful for that team. We really have an amazing group of kids there and we just got our 7th straight title,” said Fjelland.

Although Fjelland loves to study science, she said her experience with public speaking through speech and debate prepared her to compete in Rising Star of the West.

“Yeah, it’s definitely different than what I’m used to. So, I was definitely nervous to do this at first but I knew that that would help me,” explained Fjelland.

Fjelland also wanted to use the competition to get the word out about her experience in teen court.

“And that’s something that’s really important to me and just being able to help people,” stated Fjelland.

After high school, Fjelland plans to obtain a degree in biomedical engineering so she can continue to help people through her work.

“And just making things that are going to help people in their life. I love to help people and being able to make something that will help to improve somebody else’s quality of life or health or anything like that would be really great,” expressed Fjelland.

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