Meet the Staff

Ale debates in APDA for UChicago and is an assistant debate coach for the Blake High School.

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In the 2022-2023 and 2024-2025 collegiate seasons, Ale was APDA's #1 ranked Team of the Year, championing the Yale, Princeton, Brown, and NYU tournaments, among others. He was also the president of Chicago Debate Society.

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In high school, Ale placed 3rd at the 2021 NSDA Nationals and championed the Apple Valley and Milo Cup tournaments, while accumulating 7 career TOC gold bids.

He’s excited to coach this summer!

Alex is a rising junior originally from Austin, Texas. He debated for Westlake High School, accumulating 8 bids to the TOC, where he reached Octofinals. He also made late elimination rounds at tournaments such as Berkeley, TFA State, and Hendrickson.

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Alex has extensive debate coaching experience, and has previously worked as a coach for Victory Briefs Institute. Outside of debate, he enjoys playing the guitar and collecting Garfield memorabilia. He looks forward to teaching students his knowledge!

All of our instructors are talented members of the #1 debate team in the country at the University of Chicago.

In high school, Roy was ranked the #1 PF debater in the country, amassing 12 gold bids in 14 tournaments — setting the record for most bids in a single year. Roy championed Glenbrooks, Blake, Durham, Emory, Harvard, Stanford, Strake RR, and King RR and also top spoke almost every round robin he attended. 

Roy also coached over a dozen teams in the circuit, helping them amass over 30 gold bids. Additionally, he’s worked at over five debate camps and workshops, teaching hundreds of students. 

In college, Roy became APDA's #1 Speaker of the Year, winning eight tournaments — including the 2023 National Championship. In 2024 and 2025, he continued his impressive APDA record, becoming #1 Team of the Year.

Vedesh is a rising sophomore 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.

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Besides debate, Vedesh enjoys hiking, photography, and has recently started to pick up geocaching. He's excited to meet with you all this summer!

Michael is a rising sophomore at UChicago coming off of four years of exceptional debate at Durham Academy. His illustrious 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 at the 2025 APDA national championships in his first year of college debating.

​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!

​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. 

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In college, Taryn qualified to the 2025 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!