Student Leadership Council

Alani has immersed herself in speech and debate since her freshman year. Alani primarily competes in the Lincoln-Douglas category, and her favorite things about tournaments are meeting new people and hearing everyone’s unique story. Outside of debate, you will find Alani deeply involved in environmental advocacy. Whether holding electronic waste drives for her nonprofit Green Guards or writing about sustainable fashion for her school newspaper, Alani enjoys learning and research. Alani is excited to contribute to the Student Leadership Council and build friendships with people across the country.

Spencer is a sophomore at The Dalton School in New York. He has been involved in speech and debate since sixth grade, competing in Public Forum. In his freshman year, he reached elimination rounds at various national tournaments, such as Yale, Columbia, and Villiger, in addition to bidding to the UK Tournament of Champions. Inspired by his passion for debate, Spencer founded Eloquence Academy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that aims to increase speech and debate accessibility through classes and tournaments. Fifty percent of Eloquence’s tournament entry fees are donated to charity, culminating in $5,000 in donations so far. He is excited to join the Student Leadership Council in hopes of continuing to pursue debate equity. Outside of debate, Spencer enjoys playing the oboe, musical theater, and watching tennis.

Taylor has been involved in speech and debate since freshman year and currently serves as president of her school’s team. Throughout her freshman and sophomore years, she mainly competed in Public Forum Debate, placing top 12 at the Florida Varsity State competition where she and her partner were the last public school team standing in the competition. She also competed in Duo Interpretation at the end of her sophomore year, qualifying and breaking into octafinals at the National Catholic Forensic League National Tournament. In her junior year, she ended up changing events, mainly competing in Congressional Debate. She was a semifinalist at the Florida Blue Key tournament, a finalist at the Sunvitational, placed eighth at the Florida Varsity State competition, qualified for both NCFL and NSDA Nationals, and was the first person from her high school to qualify and attend the Tournament of Champions! Besides debate, Taylor enjoys spending time with her friends and family and loves to be involved in her school’s clubs and organizations. One of Taylor’s main goals for the Student Leadership Council is to continue making speech and debate more accessible for students around the world and to make an impact on those around her. 

Adele began her speech and debate journey in middle school. Since then, she has become a NSDA national semifinalist in Prose and a quarterfinalist in Storytelling. In her main category of Dramatic Interpretation, Adele is a Yale Invitational finalist, Harvard National semifinalist, and a NSDA digital e-champion. She is also a two-time St. Joseph’s University Invitational champion and the runner-up at the National Tournament of Champions. On her speech team, Adele has served as the historian and treasurer, acting as a liaison between team members and coaches. Outside of speech and debate, Adele has a passion for both performance and education. Over the years, she has been honored to play lead roles in her school’s theatrical productions. Adele is also committed to coaching her middle school speech team and tutoring English to Ukrainian refugees. However, Adele’s passion for helping others communicate doesn’t end at spoken language. The past two years, she has made a point to utilize American Sign Language (ASL) within her performances to bring attention to its lack of a presence in society. Through her time on the Student Leadership Council, Adele hopes to spearhead an effort to implement ASL into the activity in order to promote further inclusion for students who may not feel that speech and debate has a space for them. This past year, Adele created and led the ABCD of Public Speaking Club: an elementary school class that teaches the foundation of public speaking to children. Adele is beyond honored to serve on the Student Leadership Council and continue to use her voice to give back to the NSDA community. 

Creighton is a two-year captain of the Naperville Central debate team, where he has helped lead the team to place as high as second at the Illinois Congressional Debate Association (ICDA) state tournament. Although he mainly competes in Congressional Debate, C.J.’s favorite event is World Schools Debate, having served on the NSDA’s WSD Education Program over the past year; he is ranked #1 in Illinois in both events. C.J. is also the operations director of Equality in Forensics, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to making speech and debate more accessible through free resources and events. Outside of debate, C.J. is a managing editor for his school’s NSPA 100 newspaper and president of the Naperville Central Student Advisory Council. He is incredibly excited to work with the Student Leadership Council in serving the speech and debate community.

Waleed is a senior at Hendrickson High School who has competed in speech and debate since his freshman year. After giving his first Extemp speech, Waleed has poured himself into improving in Extemp, winning the Texas state championship and finaling at Harvard, among other achievements last year. He serves as a board member on Equality in Forensics and Academy37, working to improve access to Extemp resources across the country.

Anish has been involved in speech and debate since the seventh grade, competing in numerous events including Public Forum, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Congressional Debate until settling upon the event he wanted to do for the rest of his high school career: Lincoln-Douglas Debate. In LD, he has qualified to Nationals every year he has competed, advanced to quarterfinals at JV Yale and Laird Lewis, advanced to semifinals at the TFL North Carolina state tournament, and co-championed the 2023 North Carolina West district tournament. Anish is the captain of his school’s LD program and takes part in the recruitment of new LD debaters. Outside of debate, Anish is a star rank Boy Scout, president of his school’s class of 2025, and an avid player of Super Smash Brothers. Additionally, he writes for a news outlet that he has created called The Politalk. This news outlet has a website, podcast, and YouTube channel. In his free time, you can find Anish playing video games with his brother, volunteering at his local food bank, producing content for his news outlet, and running long distance for his school’s track and cross country team.

Pegah is a junior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal school in Ridgeland, Mississippi. This is her third year in speech and debate. She has competed in a wide variety of events, but her favorites are Duo, Congress, and Oratory. She has had the honor of competing at national tournaments such as NSDA, Emory’s Barkley Forum, and Harvard’s National Tournament. In her free time, Pegah loves to tell bad jokes like, “Why can’t you eat a clock? Well, it’s time-consuming!” Pegah also finds joy in cheating at Monopoly whenever she is able to. Pegah is a proud member of the Magnolia District and cannot wait to represent her peers and contribute to the Student Leadership Council in the best way possible.