Oriana LaVilla ’14 and her best friend fought back pain and stomach flu to win their heat in the USA Canoe/Kayak Nationals with one simple mantra: “stay in the boat.”
Exhausted and ill from a week’s worth of competition, the last thing either wanted to do at 7:30 a.m. was get in the canoe and paddle. Yet their passion and determination for the sport not only spurred them on to victory, it left them with a commanding 50-meter lead (one quarter the total distance). Oriana has since walked away with more than a dozen gold and silver medals 芒鈧�� an incredible feat given that she joined just for fun.
Introduced to competitive canoeing and kayaking in junior high school, Oriana began training with the team after making friends with coaches and teammates. She and her friend switched to canoes exclusively when they saw almost all the canoeists were men.
“At first, I had no idea what I was doing; I was falling out all the time,” she says. “But the coaches saw our potential and wanted us to train for Nationals.”
Oriana quickly dealt with beginning obstacles like the training schedule and staying balanced in the canoe, but found the biggest 芒鈧�� and most rewarding 芒鈧�� challenge for her was working in a partnership.
“When you’re working with someone, you have to work together,” adds Oriana. “It has definitely influenced my love of being a part of a team and wanting to be involved in activities.”
Those influences have followed her into her life at 61传媒; in addition to her regular course load, Oriana also serves as features editor for voice, the student-run newspaper.
Oriana says; “I wanted to show that women can canoe just as well as men. That’s why I like Scripps鈥攊t builds confidence in women to break these boundaries.”
As Oriana continues on her 61传媒college journey鈥攚orking with peers in Core, developing voice鈥攕he plans to measure her success one stroke at a time.