Be the Light Youth Association | Speech and Debate
  • Home
  • About us
    • Leadership Team
    • Instructors
    • Join Us
  • Impact
    • Our Impact
    • Past Events >
      • Fall Tournament 2020
  • Workshop 2021
    • Scholarships and Financial Aid
  • Resources
    • Starting a Speech and Debate Club
    • Getting Better at Speech and Debate Guide
  • Donate
  • FAQ
    • Refer a Friend
    • Workshop Refund Policy
    • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About us
    • Leadership Team
    • Instructors
    • Join Us
  • Impact
    • Our Impact
    • Past Events >
      • Fall Tournament 2020
  • Workshop 2021
    • Scholarships and Financial Aid
  • Resources
    • Starting a Speech and Debate Club
    • Getting Better at Speech and Debate Guide
  • Donate
  • FAQ
    • Refer a Friend
    • Workshop Refund Policy
    • Contact Us

Meet the Team

Be the Light - Amogh Anoo
Amogh Anoo is a junior at Plano West Senior High school who has been competing for 3 years. He competes primarily in Extemporaneous Speaking and has qualified and competed at TFA state. Additionally, he has reached elimination rounds numerous times.
Be the Light - Kendall Carl
Kendall Carll is a junior at Lovejoy High school where he serves as Co-Captain of the Public Forum team. He has qualified to the TFA State tournament, the Tournament of Champions Silver Division, and the NSDA National Tournament twice. He has also broke to late out rounds at numerous national tournaments including Plano West, NSDA Nationals, and the Tournament of Champions.
Be the Light - Vibha Chemangunta
Vibha Chemangunta is a junior at Plano East Senior High School. She competes in Original Oratory, Informative Speaking, and Duo Interpretation. She placed second in Original Oratory at the 2020 Texas Forensics Association State Tournament, and has also reached outrounds at national-level tournaments, including finals at the University of Texas at Austin Longhorn Classic and first place at the Plano West Classic.
Be the Light - Krutin Devesh
Krutin Devesh is a junior at Greenhill School and competes primarily in Lincoln-Douglas debate. He co-championed the Delores Inaugural, placed 2nd at Harvard-Westlake, and 3rd at Blake. He has been invited to the Greenhill, Voices, DebateLA (finishing 3rd), and King Round Robins and has qualified to the Tournament of Champions. He has also cleared at the NSDA National Tournament and TFA State.
Be the Light - Olivia Fan
Olivia Fan is a junior at Plano West Senior High School who competes primarily in Original Oratory. She has reached outrounds at national tournaments, such as semi-finals at the UT Longhorn Classic and quarterfinals at the Bronx Invitational. Additionally, she is a TFA state qualifier in Original Oratory, Domestic Extemp, and Informative Speaking and a 2019 NSDA Qualifier in Original Oratory.
Be the Light - Priyanka Gupta
Priyanka Gupta is a junior at Plano West Senior High School and primarily competes in Public Forum Debate. She is a two-time qualifier to the Texas Forensics Association State Tournament and has reached late elimination rounds at multiple local and national-level tournaments.
Be the Light - Charles Hou
​Charles Hou is a junior at Plano West Senior High School and primarily competes in extemporaneous speaking. He has placed at numerous state and national tournaments including 5th place at the MBA Round Robin (for the best 16 extempers in the nation), 3rd place at UT, 4th place at Yale and 11th at the National Speech and Debate Tournament.
Be the Light Kaitlyn Hou
Kaitlyn Hou is a sophomore at Jasper High school who specializes in Congressional Debate and Extemporaneous Speaking. She has finaled in Congress at the University of Texas and Plano West tournaments, where she qualifed for the Tournament of Champions. In extemp, she won the Ed Long Invitational at the Hockaday School and placed 6th at the Plano West Tournament. She is a 2x state qualifier in Congress and state qualifier in Foreign Extemp.
Be the Light - Kelly Hu
Kelly Hu is a junior at Plano West Senior High School who primarily competes in Extemporaneous Speaking and Congressional Debate. She has reached the elimination rounds of multiple state and national tournaments like 1st at the Florida Blue Key Invitational, quarterfinals at NSDA Nationals, semifinals at TFA State, and semifinals at the NYC Invitational.
Be the Light - Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones is a senior at Oakton High School and has competed in public forum for four years. He has cleared at national tournaments such as Capitol Classic, Pennsbury, and reached semifinals at the University of Pennsylvania Invitational, receiving a bid to the Gold Tournament of Champions. He has coached middle school debate for three years, served as Oakton novice coach his junior year, and is director of the non-profit NOVA Debate Camp and president of Oakton debate this year.
Be the Light - Pranav Kalakuntla
Pranav Kalakuntla is a freshman at Jasper High School who primarily competes in Congress and Extemp. He has done debate over the last 3 years, and has participated at middle school nationals for extemp. He has placed multiple times in middle school congress and extemp.
Be the Light - Neel Kanamangala
Neel is a junior at Plano East Senior High, and primarily competes in Public Forum and World Schools. Neel has been ranked as high as 3rd in the state in PF, going undefeated in prelims at State. He's had success in World Schools, placing 11th at State in his freshman year, and in the Top 16 at Nationals. Neel has coached students to success and State, National, and TOC qualifications.
Be the Light - Shruthi Kotha
Shruti Kotha is a senior at Plano West Senior High and competes mainly in Public Forum. She is a three time TFA state qualifier and has made elimination rounds at numerous tournaments such as the UT Austin tournament. She was also a member of the 2019 International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) team that won 2nd in the international competition.
Be the Light - Anushka Kumar
Anushka Kumar is a junior at Plano West Senior High School and primarily competes in Extemporaneous Speaking and Congressional Debate. She has reached the semifinals at numerous state and national tournaments including Harvard, Yale, Glenbrooks, UT, TFA State and the NYC invitational. She has also qualified for the Tournament of Champions and Extemp Tournament of Champions and was a quarterfinalist at NSDA Nationals.
Be the Light - Kate Lee
Kate Lee is a freshman at Jasper High School and has competed in extemporaneous speaking, original oratory, and public forum debate. She has placed in all three events in the middle school circuit, and was ranked 3rd in extemporaneous debate at the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) national tournament.
Be the Light - Renee Li
Renee Li is a senior at Plano West Senior High School, where she competes in Public Forum Debate. She placed 8th in the National Speech and Debate tournament, and she has qualified to both the TFA State tournament and the Tournament of Champions multiple times, breaking at Grapevine, Bronx, UK, and Yale. Renee has also earned invitations to the Blake, Harvard, and Capital City Round Robins.
Be the Light - Julia Lin
Julia Lin is a senior at Plano Senior High School and competes primarily in Informative Speaking and Original Oratory. She is a semi-finalist at the Harvard Speech and Debate Tournament and placed 2nd at the TFA State Tournament. She recently placed 1st in Original Oratory and 2nd in Informative Speaking at the University of Texas Austin’s Longhorn Classic.
Be the Light - Karin Liu
Karin Liu is a rising Junior at Oakton High School where she competes in Public Forum. She has reached elimination rounds at several national tournaments such as Georgetown International and GMU. Locally, she placed first at VHSL Regionals and qualified to WACFL Varsity Metrofinals. She is excited to work with everyone!
Be the Light - Pranav Nathan
Pranav Nathan is a senior at Plano West Senior High School and competes in Informative Speaking and Original Oratory. He has finaled at national circuit tournaments, such as the New York Invitational. He is also a National Speech and Debate Qualifier in Informative Speaking and International Extemporaneous Speaking, and placed in the top 16 of the International Public Policy Forum.
Be the Light - Alyssa Nie
Alyssa Nie is a senior at Plano West Senior High and competes primarily in Public Forum Debate. She placed 1st at the Harvard National Tournament, is a Tournament of Champions Qualifier, and a three time qualifier to the TFA State Tournament, placing 3rd in her junior year. Additionally, she placed top 16 in the International Public Policy Forum competition and ranked 9th in the nation in World Schools Debate.
Be the Light Ashley Pan
Ashley Pan is a senior at Plano Senior High School who competes primarily in Original Oratory. In the past year, she has qualified for and competed at TFA State and the Tournament of Champions. In addition to serving on the Be the Light instructor team, Ashley has experience in public speaking and teaching as a TA for the TSUP organization, a private tutor, a pageant coach, and an emcee for local events.
Be the Light Cameron Roberts
Cameron Roberts is a Junior at Jack C Hays high school. She competes in Extemporaneous Speaking and Original Oratory. Cameron earned both 6th place at the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament and 3rd place at the NSDA National Tournament in Foreign Extemporaneous speaking. She has also qualified for the Extemp TOC and Individual Events TOC.
Be the Light - Pranav Pattatathunaduvil
Pranav Pattatathunaduvil is a senior at Plano West Senior High and competes in Extemp and Congress. He placed 2nd in International Extemp at the NSDA Tournament and 2nd in Extemp at the Tournament of Champions and the Harvard Tournament. Pranav was also the 2018 UIL State Champion in Informative Extemp and was invited to the MBA Round Robin for the top 16 extempers in the nation.
Be the Light - Andy Shufer
Andy Shufer is a senior at Plano West Senior High and compete primarily in Public Forum Debate. He is a qualifier to the TFA State tournament and has reached many elimination rounds, including at TFA state. He has won multiple local tournaments, qualified for TOC, and has competed at NSDA nationals in World Schools debate and Public Forum Debate, becoming one of the top 50 teams in the nation!
Be the Light - Shivam Siddaiya
Shivam Siddaiya is a junior at Plano West Senior High and primarily competes in Public Forum Debate. He has made it to elimination rounds and champed at several TFA sanctioned tournaments such as Creekview. In addition, he has qualified for the 2020 TFA State Tournament.
Be the Light - Meghna Subramanium
Meghna Subramanium is a junior at Plano West Senior High and competes primarily in Public Forum Debate. She is a qualifier to the TFA State tournament where she reached elimination rounds. Additionally, she works with Beyond Resolved, an organization dedicated to eliminating inequality from the Speech and Debate space.
Be the Light - Madeline Tsao
Madeline Tsao is a sophomore at Jasper High School and competes in Extemporaneous Speaking and World Schools Debate. In addition to qualifying for NSDA Nationals in her freshman year, she won Worlds with her team at the Isidore Newman Invitational, placed 4th at UT in International Extemp, and is a two-time qualifier to the TFA State Tournament.
Be the Light - Urvi Vallapareddy
Urvi Vallapareddy is a Senior at Flower Mound High School and is the Novice Captain of her team. She primarily competes in extemporaneous speaking where she has qualified for ETOC, triple qualified for TFA State, and double qualified for NSDA Nationals. She has also received an invitation to the Capital City Round Robin and ranked 9th in World Schools Debate as NSDA Nationals.
Be the Light - Angela Wang
Angela Wang is a senior at Plano West and competes in Extemporaneous Spekaing and Congressional Debate. She placed 1st in International Extemp at the NSDA National Tournament, the TFA State Tournament, and the Capital City Round Robin. Angela also finaled at the Tournament of Champions and Extemp Tournament of Champions.
Be the Light - Grace Wang
Grace Wang is a junior at Plano West Senior High School and competes in Public Forum. She has reached late elimination rounds at various bid tournaments, is a two-time qualifier to the TFA State Tournament and has qualified to the Tournament of Champions.
Be the Light - Leo Yu
Leo Yu is a junior at Plano West Senior High school and competes in Congressional Debate and Extemporaneous Speaking. Along with being a qualifier to the National Speech and Debate tournament, he has also reached numerous outrounds, including the semi finals at the University of Texas Longhorn Classic, semi finals at the TFA state tournament, and quarterfinals at the Harvard tournament.
Be the Light - Brady Zeng
Brady Zeng is a sophomore at Jasper High School and primarily competes in Public Forum Debate. In his freshmen season, he qualified to the Texas Forensics Association State tournament and broke to elimination rounds at several tournaments. Additionally, he received speaker awards at many local tournaments he attended. He's excited to work with everyone!
Be the Light Sophia Zhang
Sophia Zhang is a sophomore at Jasper High School and primarily competes in public speaking events. Although she has competed in events such as public forum and extemp, she mainly focuses on interp events now, such as dramatic interpretation, duo, and humorous interpretation. She has placed at multiple high school tournaments, such as first place at the Creekview Winter Extravaganza, and is consistently competing.
ABOUT US
Our Mission
Meet The Team
​Our Impact
OUR PROGRAMS
Past Events
2020 Fall Workshop
2020 Fall Tournament
SUPPORT
Starting a Speech and Debate Club
Donate
Contact Us
​Frequently Asked Questions

​

Be the Light Youth Association