Meet the Staff
What sets us apart is our unwavering commitment to the activity of debate itself. Unlike other camps, our team is still deeply involved in the debate community and have a firsthand understanding of what it takes to excel.
Public Forum, Worlds Schools, and Parli Instructors
Our instructors consist of former top competitors with a combined 50+ PF gold bids, four Top 10-ranked debaters, and 1 TOC top speaker.
Michael Hansen
UChicago '28 | Economics, Philosophy, History
Michael is a rising junior at UChicago coming off of four years of exceptional debate at Durham Academy. His PF career include championing TOC in 2023 and being ranked the #1 PF debater that season by NSD. Alongside championing the Yale and Glenbrooks Invitationals, he was also the 2022 NCFL Champion. He also varsity broke twice at APDA national championships, reaching the top 8 this year.
Outside of debate, Michael enjoys playing basketball, watching movies (Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of his favorites), listening to music, and reading. He's looking forward to working with you all this summer!
Vedesh Kodnani
UChicago '28 | Mathematics, History
Vedesh is a rising junior at UChicago originally from Fremont, California. During his PF career, Vedesh accumulated 16 TOC bids and championed Stanford, Columbia (2x), and La Costa Canyon. He was ranked #3 in the nation by the NSDA.
Besides debate, Vedesh enjoys hiking, photography, and has recently started to pick up geocaching. He's excited to meet with you all this summer!
...and more!
Stay tuned for guest speakers and instructors to be announced soon.
All of our instructors are talented members of the #1 debate team in the country at the University of Chicago.
Brendon Chen
UChicago '28 | Mathematics, Economics
Brendon competes in APDA and BP for UChicago. In high school, Brendon competed in PF for Taipei American School.
Over four years, Brendon accumulated 9 Gold PF TOC bids and was ranked 5th in the nation. He championed the Durham Invitational and the University of Kentucky's Season Opener, while also reaching the semifinals at the Bronx Invitational, Glenbrooks, and King Round Robin. In college, Brendon championed Tufts while breaking twice at APDA nationals, reaching the top 8 this year.
Besides debate, Brendon enjoys playing chess and watching basketball. He’s excited to coach this summer!
Saahas Ajmera
UChicago '29 | Physics,
Economics
Saahas is a rising sophomore at UChicago, originally from Bangalore, India. Saahas was on the Team India WSDC Dev Squad and represented the country at several international WSDC, BP, and AP competitions, where he frequently top-spoke, broke, and won. Saahas also founded and coached his high school debate club in the same formats, while also volunteering at several non-profit debate organisations as a coach. Saahas looks to have fun coaching at CDA this summer!
Jackson Schreiber
UChicago '28 | Law Letters & Society
Before studying at UChicago, Jackson attended Horace Mann School, where he competed in Public Forum Debate.
In 2023, Jackson reached the finals of the NY State Championship. He reached the quarterfinals of NY States the next year, when he also qualified for the Gold PF TOC. While competing, Jackson also led a debate tutoring program for a local public school, mentoring 50 middle school students. Now in college, Jackson coaches for his high school, where his debaters recently finaled Silver TOC this year. In APDA, Jackson has also qualified for nationals twice, while consistently reaching top speaker awards.
Jackson is extremely excited to coach this summer!
Daniel Jiang
UChicago '29 | Computational Applied Mathematics, Molecular Engineering
Daniel attended Bellarmine College Prep, where he competed in Public Forum and Informative Speaking for four years. Daniel became the first team in his school's history to qualify for the TOC in PF. While earning his second PF TOC qual, Daniel also placed 5th at California States, qualified for the TOC in Informative Speaking, and served as captain of his team. Daniel hopes his diverse public speaking background will create great learning opportunities this summer at CDA!
Public Speaking & Persuasion Instructors
Our instructors are from the University of Chicago Debate Society, which has been ranked the #1 college debate club in the US for the past three years.
Jake Hirshberg
UChicago '28 | Philosophy
Jake is the current President of the Chicago Debate Society. Competing in both APDA and BP parliamentary debate styles for UChicago, he notably championed the 2026 George Washington Tournament and the 2025 University of Maryland Tournament. Jake has also qualified twice to the APDA National Tournament and was a Top 25 American Parli Debater in the 2025-2026 season.
Jake is excited to work with public speakers of all experience levels and help you rapidly improve!
Andrew Cui
UChicago '29 | Economics, Statistics
In high school, Andrew competed in Public Forum and Congressional Debate. He accumulated 6 total TOC bids while semifinaling Congress at NCFLs and championing two events at NJ States. He also served as Co-President of Ridge Forensics, where he taught dozens of debaters and organized a yearly public speaking camp for 100+ students. In his freshman year, Andrew qualified for APDA Nationals and championed GW ProAms.
Outside of debate, Andrew likes to read, watch Formula 1, and play video games and Catan. He's very excited to coach this summer!
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Taryn Murphy
UChicago '27 | Law, Letters & Society, Political Science
Taryn has experience with both Public Forum and extemporaneous debate. Originally from New Jersey, Taryn has over 15 state level awards on the NJ circuit, and was a national qualifier for extemporaneous speaking in 2022 and 2023. She also founded and led the first ever debate team at her school.
In college, Taryn qualified to the 2025 and 2026 American Parliamentary Debate Association national championships, and was a finalist at George Washington. In her free time, Taryn enjoy listening to indie music and collecting vinyl records. She can't wait to meet her students this summer!
...and more!
Stay tuned for guest speakers and instructors to be announced soon
All of our instructors are talented members of the #1 debate team in the country at the University of Chicago.
Daniel Jiang
UChicago '29 | Computational Applied Mathematics, Molecular Engineering
Daniel attended Bellarmine College Prep, where he competed in Informative Speaking and Public Forum Debate for four years.
During his high school career, Daniel became the first team in his school's history to qualify for the TOC in PF. While earning his second PF TOC qual, Daniel also qualified for the TOC in Informative Speaking, placed 5th at California States (CHSSA), and served as captain of his team.
Daniel hopes his diverse public speaking background will create great learning opportunities this summer at CDA!