Evelyn Ding is a junior at Plano West and competes in Extemp and Congress. She has advanced to outrounds at multiple national and state tournaments, including semifinals at the Emory University Barkley Forum and TFA State. She has qualified to NSDA Nationals, TFA State, NIETOC, and TOC.

Kaitlyn Fan is a sophomore at Jasper High School and primarily competes in Extemporaneous Speaking, with experience in Congressional Debate and Original Oratory. She is currently the Extemp captain at Jasper High School and has competed in speech/debate for the past four years, qualifying for the TFA state tournament in both DX and IX and breaking to the octofinal round at NIETOC.

Ishika Kothari is a junior at Plano East Senior High School and has competed in Extemporaneous Speaking for two years and counting! During her sophomore season, she qualified to UIL State (and won 4th place), TFA State (was a quarterfinalist) and the UK TOC (was sadly unable to attend). Aside from state-level tournaments, she has also found success at many local/regional tournaments, where she has consistently finalled, mostly placing in the top 3. Ishika is thrilled to be teaching at Be The Light this year!

Lindsey Zhao is a sophomore at Clark HS, where she has been competing in speech & debate for the past 4 years. She mostly competes in Extemporaneous Speaking, placing in various locals and qualifying to the 2023 NSDA Nationals. She has also made it to outrounds at a variety of national/state level tournaments, including NIETOC, TFA State, and Berkeley.

Eric Qian is a sophomore at Jasper High School who mainly competes in Extemporaneous Speaking. This past year, he octafinaled TFA State in Public Forum Debate, ranking among the top 16 teams in Texas. Additionally, Eric qualified to both TFA State and the NIETOC in Extemp, breaking to octafinals at the NIETOC. He can't wait to return for another year at BTL!

Hi! My name is Serene, and I’m a rising junior at Plano East. I mostly compete in Congress and Extemp, and have been competing all throughout high school. Some of my accomplishments include qualifying for TFA State and NSDA Nationals, as well as semifinaling at TFA State. I am excited to be working with BTL this year!

Eshaan is a rising junior at Plano West Senior High School. He has been competing in public forum debate for the last two years. He reached many elimination rounds in past tournaments. He has also qualified and competed in the TFA State tournament.

Yang Bai is a sophomore at Jasper High School. He has participated in Public Forum since middle school and has represented his school to reach late elimination rounds at many local tournaments. He was one ballot away from qualifying for the NSDA National Tournament his freshman year, landing 4th place in the District Tournament.

David Cui is a senior at Plano West and has been competing in Public Forum Debate for 4 years. He has qualified twice to TFA State and once to the Tournament of Champions. With his partner Aaryan, he's amassed a gold and a silver bid and has reached the elimination rounds of tournaments such as Yale, TFA State, and more.

Roshan is a Sophomore at Shepton High School and serves as the speech captain. He competes in Extemporaneous Speaking. He's finalled at multiple local tournaments like Prosper Rock Hill and Coppell and qualified for tournaments such as NIETOC and TFA State. He also has made it to elimination rounds at national level tournaments such as Grapevine and made elimination rounds at the NSDA National Speech and Debate tournament in Extemporaneous Commentary.

Swathi is a sophomore at Plano East Senior High School and has competed in speech and debate for 4 years. She primarily competes in Original Oratory and Informative Speaking, but also does Congress on the side. She has qualified to TFA State in all three events, where she was Top 18 in the state for Informative Speaking. Along with qualifying for TOC, NIETOC, NSDA Nationals, Swathi is so excited to teach speech this coming year!

Anuj is a rising junior at Plano West Senior High School and has been competing in Public Forum Debate for the past two years. He has qualified twice to TFA State, NSDA Nationals, and the Tournament of Champions, where he placed amongst the top 10 speakers. With his partner, Arrman, he has made it to numerous elimination rounds, including semifinals at Grapevine and UT, quarterfinals at Glenbrooks and TFA state, Octofinals of Harvard, and Doubles at Stanford and Yale.

Emily Hu is a senior at Greenhill School and competes in World Schools Debate. She placed 3rd at TFA State, is a two-time octafinalist at NSDA Nationals, and reached finals at UT. Locally, she has reached elimination rounds at many tournaments, championing Grapevine, Jesuit, and Coppell.

Kaaviya is a rising senior who primarily competes in Extemp and Congress. She has been ranked within the top ten ranks at TFA State in Extemp, as well as various outrounds at national tournaments, including semifinals at UT & the Extemp Tournament of Champions. She is excited to be a part of BTL!

Kate is a senior at Plano West Senior High School and competes in extemporaneous speaking, both domestic and international. She has most notably placed 6th at NSDA Nationals, 2nd at TFA State, and 3rd at Yale.

Pranav Kalakuntla is a senior at Plano West. He primarily competes in international extemp. He’s competed and placed at several local level tournaments as well as semifinaling at the UT tournament this year. Pranav is very excited to be returning back to teach BTL for his fourth year!

Sanjana is a senior at Plano West and has been involved in speech and debate for the past six years. She is a three time qualifier to TFA State, being amongst the top 20 teams in her sophomore year and the top 15 in her freshman year. She was also ranked amongst the top 10 speakers of the state this year. She has reached outrounds in several big tournaments such as the UT Longhorn Classic and received bids for the Tournament of Champions.

Sophia Wei is a rising junior at Plano West and competes primarily in Extemporaneous Speaking. As a former BTL student, she has competed in speech and debate for 4 years and currently serves as the Extemp captain for the Jasper Speech and Debate team. This past year, she placed in numerous local tournaments, qualifying for TFA State, NIETOC, and UK TOC.

Andy Lee is a freshman at Jasper High School. He has been actively participating in speech and debate for three years, and his primary focus lies in Congressional Debate and Extemporaneous Speaking. Throughout his involvement in speech and debate, he has consistently advanced to elimination rounds and secured multiple placements in various local middle school tournaments.

Anshul has been competing in speech and debate since 6th grade (5 years now) and my main events are domestic extemp and congress. Aside from speech and debate, he is passionate about the STEM field/AI and enjoy finding ways to solve scientific and medical problems with code.

Esther Zhao is a freshman in Jasper High School. She has competed in public forum debate for three years in middle school, placing at many local middle school tournaments. She looks forward to working with the students at Be the Light!

Vijay Shivnani is a freshman at Shepton High School. After competing for three years and winning at various middle school tournaments in Original Oratory, Duet Acting, and Prose, Vijay was named his school's Team Captain and the 2023 Plano Middle School City Champion in Original Oratory. After the season, he was asked to give his oratory at the Grand opening of the Robinson Fine Arts Center.

Kate Liu is a rising junior at Plano East and typically competes in Extemporaneous Speaking. In the year that she's been competing, she's broken to outrounds at tournaments such as Stanford and Harvard, as well as qualifying to TFA State, NIETOC, and TOC in Extemp, and winning at Flowermound, where she received a $500 scholarship.

Arrman Kapoor is a rising junior at Plano West and competes in Public Forum Debate. He is a three time qualifier to the Gold TOC and NSDA Nationals. This past season, he accumulated 8 bids to the TOC and was ranked as high as 5th in the nation. His accomplishments include semifinals at UT and TFA State, quarterfinals and the number one seed at Glenbrooks, and octafinals at Harvard. Recently, he placed 10th at NSDA Nationals. Arrman is excited to return to BTL!