Adam debated at Greenhill for 4 years. He made it to the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions (TOC) as well as elimination rounds of many national tournaments. He primarily read kritiks (Cap K, Psychoanalysis K, Humanism K, Anthropocene K, Whiteness K), policy arguments (Politics DA, Topic DAs, CPs), and started reading K Affs his senior year. Adam is very excited to share the things he have learned during high school debate and is looking forward to teaching this year at VBI!

Alice competed at Heights High school for four years in policy and LD and qualified to TFA state and the TOC. She was also a Houston Urban Debate League debater! Now, she is an assistant LD coach at The Harker School. Her debate interests include settler colonialism, topicality, and policy debates, and she is excited to work at VBI this summer!

Anika Ganesh debated at Notre Dame San Jose for three years and was captain her junior and senior years. She qualified to the TOC 3 times, earning 8+ career bids. Anika championed the Meadows Invitational and reached late elims of Berkeley, College Prep, Loyola, Nano Nagle, Alta, etc. She also received 8 speaker awards and was the top speaker at Alta her junior year. Anika's primary interests are policy arguments, with a focus on impact turns and counterplans, and settler colonialism. She is very excited to teach at camp this year!

Walking into my Sophomore year at KU hedging a path for young academics to self express and develop new cultivating research practices. I've done policy debate for the past five years, winning the NDCA national championship, NCFL, as well as receiving the Baker award.

Dylan Jones competed in LD debate for two years at Plano West High School (TX) and currently studies philosophy at the University of Texas at Dallas. As a competitor, Dylan qualified to the TOC senior year and appeared in elimination rounds at several competitive national tournaments. As a coach, Dylan's students have appeared in elims at multiple major nationals including Stanford, Peninsula, UT, and Churchill, as well as experiencing competitive success at the state level. Dylan's debate/research interests are primarily concerned with various creative critical literature bases, mostly focusing on poststructuralism and continental critical philosophy.

Elizabeth Elliott is currently studying Political Science and Anthropology at Wake Forest where she debates. In high school, she did LD at Isidore Newman School where she consistently reached elimination rounds of major national tournaments. Notable results each year include reaching the top fourteen at NSDA nationals as a sophomore, championing Heritage Hall her junior year, and reaching finals of Blake her senior year. She has qualified too and cleared at the TOC twice. In addition, she received ten round-robin invitations and ten career bids. Her interests in the debate include topicality, process counterplans, creative AFF writing, impact turns, and kritiks. This is her second year teaching at VBI, and she is so excited to work with students again this summer.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Su debated for Mountain House High School. During her senior year, she broke at the Tournament of Champions and reached late elimination rounds at tournaments such as Loyola, College Prep, Peninsula, and the Harvard Round Robin. Lizzie taught at VBI last year and is super excited to return as an instructor!

Ella Huang debated for four years at St. Agnes Academy. Some of her accomplishments include acquiring 8 bids to the TOC, reaching quarters of Greenhill, Nano Nagle, Apple Valley, and Harvard-Westlake, semis of Strake, finals of TFA State, and championing U of H. She also received top speaker at Glenbrooks and 3rd speaker at TOC. Her debate interests include policy-style arguments and the cap K. Ella's excited to teach at VBI this summer!

Hope Lee was a Lincoln Douglas debater for four years at Marlborough School. She qualified to the TOC her junior and senior year, co-championed the Golden Desert and Alta Silver & Black Invitationals, and consistently reached elimination rounds of major national tournaments. Hope primarily ran policy arguments during highschool, and her favorite speech to give is the 2AR. She looks forward to teaching at VBI this summer!

Jacob Palmer is a policy debater for Emory University who has found success on the collegiate circuit reading both policy and K positions. He has competed at the National Debate Tournament and in elimination rounds at ADA and CEDA nationals. Jacob currently coaches the debate team at Durham Academy, where he also debated in high school. His students have championed the NCFL grand national tournament, made it deep out rounds at NSDA nationals, competed in finals of the NC state tournament, championed TOC bid tournaments, and competed in finals at round robins. Jacob has expertise in traditional debate, policy argumentation, and k debate. He is also a VBI alum, attending the camp twice as a student.

Joshua debated for Challenge Early College High School which has an extremely small and underfunded debate program but managed to make a name for himself on the circuit. He has been a part of the activity for a while and loves to give back to the community. He has made it to a few Bid rounds including the 2023 Emory & Stanford tournament being an octofinalist. He has also qualified for the TFA (Texas Forensic Association) State tournament twice and finished his 2023 season as an Octofinalist. He specializes in any form of the K, primarily focusing on Non-T and T Afropess, Afro Optimism, Afro-futurism, Security, and the Cap K. Excluding debate, loves to research and learn new things/do new activities.

Kabir debated for four years at The Harker School in LD. He qualified to the Tournament of Champions his junior and senior year, and was the top seed at the TOC in 2023. He also was in the semifinals of Stanford, Berkeley, and the Glenbrooks. His favorite arguments to read and go for were impact turns. He's excited to teach at VBI this summer!

Lilly debated on the national circuit for 3 years for Northland Christian, and was a team captain her junior and senior years. She accumulated 5 career bids and was in 11 career bid rounds. Getting second speaker and reaching octos at the TOC, she was also invited to multiple round robins and additionally championed Durham’s Challenge and Tournament. Her debate interests focused in theory and policy arguments, while dabbling in philosophy and tricks. She now coaches for Northland Christian, and she's super excited to be joining VBI's staff this year!

Seth competed in policy debate for 2 years before switching to LD (for 2 years as well) at the Greenhill School. While debating, Seth made it to elimination rounds at the TOC and NDCA, along with multiple semi final rounds at national circuit tournaments like the Glenbrooks, Longhorn Classic, and Heart of Texas. As a debater, Seth primarily read both policy and critical arguments. Seth is looking forward to teaching at VBI this summer!

Temitope Ogundare debated in high school at Newark Science and then in college at Rutgers University-Newark! Her career started in 2016 in policy at Newark Science before transitioning to LD in her sophomore year. At Newark Science, Temitope was invited to multiple Round Robins, in many late elimination rounds, and qualified to and competed at NSDA Nationals in both policy and LD. At Rutgers, Temitope competed in NDT/CEDA policy, NFA-LD, Public Forum, and British Parliamentary. During her time there she championed multiple tournaments across the varying formats and worked to better the debate community such as engaging in competition with the Bard Prison Initiative. She is excited to be working at VBI and is ready to teach about, and talk through, most things under the sun!

Wyeth is a rising freshman at Harvard. She debated LD at Marlborough, where she earned 21+ bids and qualified to the Tournament of Champions three times. She has championed St. Marks's Heart of Texas, Berkeley's Cal Invitational, the California Round Robin, UNLV's Golden Desert, and Alta's Silver and Black Invitational, earning first speaker at octofinals bids like Emory's Barkley Forum and St. Marks's Heart of Texas. She ran primarily policy arguments in high school, and her favorite 2NRs to give are on the Econ DA and the Postwork K.

Tanya debated at Westridge, where she was the first-ever member in team history to qualify to the TOC. She earned 5+ career bids and consistently reached elimination rounds of every major national tournament she attended. Some of her accomplishments include championing the New York City and Alta's Silver & Black Invitationals, reaching semifinals of Nano Nagle and quarterfinals of Jack Howe, in addition to receiving multiple speaker awards at Glenbrooks, Stanford, Yale, UKSO, Harvard-Westlake, Loyola, etc. Tanya’s favorite arguments include settler colonialism, heg bad, creative process counterplans, and semiocapitalism. As a VBI alumna, Tanya's super excited to return as an instructor this summer!

Vishnu did Lincoln-Douglas at Dulles High School for 4 years. He qualified to the TOC his senior year with 10 bids. He also qualified to TFA State 3 times. He won the Mid America Cup, Finaled the University of Houston, Made semis of the TOC and the Glenbrooks, and was in late eliminations at St. Marks, Harvard, Strake Jesuit, and Greenhill. Vishnu mainly read theory and philosophy arguments. In his free time, Vishnu loves to play table tennis, ride his bike, and chill with his dog.