Our Staff

Seoyoung (Trinity) Yun is a rising senior at Interlake High School. After falling in love with speech and debate in middle school, she has been a member of Interlake's Speech and Debate Club since day one of high school. Trinity has experience competing in Lincoln Douglas debate, Oratory speech and Informative speech. She has also been a part of our leadership as Tournament Coordinator. Trinity will be returning as a head coach at Tyee Middle School for the fourth year this fall. Outside of speech and debate, Trinity enjoys playing the violin and reading!

Stella is a rising senior at Interlake. She competes in Public Forum and has qualified for both State and TOC. Stella is ranked #37 nationally, having finished in the top 16 at Stanford, top 32 at Berkeley, and championed multiple Washington tournaments. She also has served as our Tournament Coordinator and a PF squad captain, and will also be teaching at NOVA debate camp this summer. Outside of debate, she likes math and playing volleyball.

Jerry is a rising senior who competes in policy debate. He has won multiple state level tournaments and reached deep elimination rounds in several national tournaments, including finals at Stanford. He has been teaching debate for two years to middle schoolers at Odle, as well as high school policy debaters as a squad captain. Outside of debate, Jerry reads and cooks.

Cady is a rising junior at Interlake and has been competing in Public Forum debate for four years. In the last two years, she has reached elimination rounds at 10+ tournaments and has been ranked as high as top 20 nationally. Cady has been a PF squad captain for the past year and will also be teaching at NOVA debate camp this summer. Outside of debate, you can find her baking new recipes, writing poetry, or playing the piano. 

Eva Olteanu is an incoming junior at Interlake High School and has been debating for two years, competing in policy debate! She fully qualified to the Tournament of Champions (TOC) in 2025, as well as advanced to the elimination rounds at Mid America Cup, Berkeley Invitational, Lakeland, etc. and champing/co-champing tournaments such as Bear Creek, Mount Vernon Invitational, and state! Outside of debate, Eva likes to do a number of grandma-esque activities such as baking, sewing/knitting, reading, and walking her dog (Mocha).

Giya is a rising senior at Interlake. She started speech & debate in her freshman year and has since competed in Oratory, Impromptu, Duo Interpretation, and Program Oral Interp (POI). She is a two-time state finalist, a qualifier to the UK Tournament of Champions, and a recipient of the NSDA Academic All-American Award. Outside of speech, she enjoys writing poetry and baking macarons!  

Suha is a rising junior at Interlake and is starting her third year on Interlake’s Speech and Debate team. Suha’s seen numerous successes in Humorous Interpretation, with attendance at the TOC. Outside of SnD, Suha likes to bake, listen to music, and go on runs.

Weijia is a rising junior who competes in Public Forum. She advanced to elimination rounds at multiple tournaments and qualified to the TOC. In her free time, Weijia likes to rock climb, paint, draw, and learn about biology. She's super excited to teach at this year's S&D camp!.

Jayden Padwalkar is a rising junior at Interlake. He has debated for six years but specializes in Public Forum debate. He has advanced to elimination rounds at the Milo Cup, Seattle University, and the TOC Digital Series. His favorite arguments are politics arguments. Besides debate, he loves playing tennis, walking his dog, and listening to music (he's open to song recs!)

Aaron is a rising junior policy debater at Interlake. So far in his two year debate career, he qualified to the tournament of champions, won top speaker at the Lakeland Invitational, and advanced to the elimination rounds of other tournaments. Although it doesn't show, his favorite argument to run is the disadvantage. One fun fact is that his biggest hobby is origami.

Julia Ye is a rising junior who competes in Policy Debate. She has been doing speech and debate for four years and has competed in over 10 tournaments both at the local and national level. At the varsity level, Julia has won the WIAA State Championships, co-championed the Bear Creek Invitational, and advanced to elimination rounds at the TOC Digital Speech and Debate Series 2. Her favorite arguments are Kritiks and process counterplans. In addition to debate, Julia enjoys playing tennis, visiting national parks, and drawing.

Mia Chen is a rising senior at Interlake High School. She has been competing in policy debate for three years and has reached numerous elimination rounds at national-level tournaments such as Gonzaga and Stanford. Outside of competing, she serves as the Outreach Officer for the Interlake Speech & Debate team. In her free time, she enjoys dancing and playing the piano.

Kavya Rengan is a rising senior at Interlake High School. She has made it to elimination rounds at almost every local tournament she has gone to and consistently competed throughout both her freshman and sophomore year. Outside of debate, she loves reading, baking, and driving her friends to random places!

Tarang is a rising sophomore at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington with over four years of speech and debate experience, focusing on Public Forum Debate (PF) and Dramatic Interpretation (DI). This year, she placed 4th overall in Washington State for Dramatic Interpretation. Tarang also has experience as a coach, working with middle school students through Tyee Middle School’s Speech & Debate team. Outside of Speech & Debate, Tarang loves arts and crafts, dancing, and listening to music.

Yihe Chen is a rising junior at Interlake High School. He has been debating on the national debate circuit for all of High School and has made it to elimination rounds at many tournaments, including the National Speech and Debate Season Opener. His favorite arguments inside debate include policy-style arguments, the critique, and postmodernism, while outside of debate he enjoys Photography and Geopolitics.

Cindy is a rising sophomore at Interlake and has been doing debate for around 2 years! She does Public Forum debate and Humorous Interpretation speech. In speech, she got multiple bids to state in her first year and placed 3rd at Speech National Qualifiers. She has also champed a novice debate tournament and competed at several national circuit tournaments. Outside of debate, she loves biking and reading!

Sneha Chawla is a rising junior at Interlake High School in Washington State and has been doing Speech and Debate for three years, but primarily focuses on Platform Speech... She has been doing several major competitions like the Stanford Invitational, TOC Digital Series, and many more and also won awards in some of them... She has been passionate about helping novices and thereby enhancing her own skills to lead successful and the most fun Speech And Debate experiences. Outside of S&D, she enjoys composing her own songs and sketching some beautiful pieces of art, which further helps her enhance her unique skills that she enjoys spending time in😊.

Sophy is a rising sophomore who has been debating for three years with a focus in Public Forum Debate (PF) and Impromptu Speech (IMP). She has advanced to elimination rounds and earned speaker awards at numerous tournaments, including this year at Newport, University of Puget Sound, and Bear Creek, as well as winning in novice PF at Seattle U. Sophy is also a dedicated debate coach at Tyee Middle School, and can’t wait to meet more debaters. Outside of debate, you’ll probably find her reading, taking photos, or spending time at the beach!

Emma is a rising junior at Interlake High school, she has been debating for two years. Outside of debate she enjoys studying biology and ice dancing.

Ece is a rising junior at Interlake. She has done Lincoln-Douglas debate for two years, teaching novices in the Lincoln-Douglas squad and acting as a judge for Odle Debate. Outside of debate, she works for Turkish Women's Charity and Aid Association and enjoys math and cooking.

Meenakshi is a rising sophomore who did parliamentary debate for 2 years in middle school and public forum for one year in high school. She semi-finalled at Mount Vernon as a novice second speaker and won first speaker points in the novice division for public forum. She likes music and is an outgoing person.

Emily is a rising junior from international school. She spends her free time painting, baking bomb brownies, debating, and eating sumo oranges. She likes being involved and doesn’t mind helping when something needs to get done. She’s especially passionate about creative expression and learning how different people think, which shows up in both her art and her love for debate.

Sahiti is a rising sophomore at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington. She has been involved in speech and debate for one year and is currently focusing on public forum debate, platform speaking, and duo interpretation. Outside of speech and debate, she enjoys reading books, sketching in her free time, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.

Unnat Parsana is a rising sophomore at Interlake High School in Washington state and has been doing speech and debate for one year, but focuses on policy debate. He advanced to semifinals at the BSD Invitational, and has competed in 7 debate tournaments in his freshman year. Outside of debate, he likes to watch TV, bike, and read.

Jingqi is an incoming sophomore who competes in Public Forum. This year, she advanced to elimination rounds in various tournaments, as well as championing SeattleU in the Novice Division. Jingqi also enjoys her work as a coach of Tyee Speech and Debate. In her free time, she likes to draw, read and play games.

Nandini is a rising junior who competes in Lincoln-Douglas debate. She enjoys working with new students and has some experience tutoring outside of debate as well. She’s looking forward to meeting everyone and hopes to be helpful as others build their skills. Whether it's with practice rounds or getting comfortable with the basics, she's happy to support wherever she can.

Mihika Oruganti is an incoming sophomore at Interlake High School and elated to be an instructor at IS&D Camp! With one year of experience in high school speech (interp) and debate (PF), she quickly learned the true meaning of ‘good things come to those who wait’. From memorizing scripts 7 minutes before rounds to consistently blowing off Saturday morning classes to go to tournaments, Mihika’s freshmen year of S&D has been a whirlwind of activity. Outside of speech and debate, Mihika can be found reading, trying to achieve the perfect temperature of water, or persuading her friends to give her food (success rate: 0.0000001%). As she moves forward, she is excited to be an instructor at camp and hopes to welcome a new set of speech & debaters to this wonderful extracurricular.

Shreshth is a rising sophomore at interlake high school. He has been doing speech and debate for 1 year but focuses on policy debate. He has been to 5 tournaments his freshman year. Outside of speech and debate he enjoys playing soccer on his team, watching tv, and reading.