Stuy S&D Update #2: October 26, 2025
- Myles Vuong
- Oct 26
- 5 min read
Hello Speech & Debate families!
Thank you to all who attended our annual Kickoff meeting at Stuyvesant's Murray Kahn Theater on October 8th! We appreciate the record turnout and the constant support of the administration and Alumni Association. If you missed it, please see our schedule on the website and subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page. We would greatly appreciate any and all donations to help us travel this year.
Stuyvesant Speech and Debate also rocked the NYC Invitational (10/17-19)! Competitors enjoyed the weekend at Bronx Science and PS95, strengthing our bonds, enjoying the generous hospitality, and sparring with national competition. Thank you to all parents and to our dedicated alumni Saloudian Barry (‘25), Seth Fenton (‘25), Atiya Firooz (‘25), and Daniel Zheng ('25) for helping and judging! Our strong showing couldn't have been possible without the shared commitment and practice of all team members and the hard work from Ms. Sheinman, Dr. Yu, Ms. Ingram, and Mr. Segalini.
We returned yesterday to the Bronx High School of Science for the Sister Raimonde Memorial Service Tournament (10/25). We sent 108 competitors, 12 parents, 9 upperclassmen judges, and 2 teachers. One hundred and thirty-one people had a great day. We are so proud that our team came together for many speeches, awards, and laughs!
We appreciate parent involvement and support. We need judges for upcoming local tournaments in all events to keep our team competing across the city! Please fill out this form if you are interested in judging.
Team Updates
Congress:
Stuy Congress killed it at Xavier and Big Bronx! At Xavier, four debaters made finals: Raymond Chen (2nd), Louis Oh-Aronson (6th), Alice Frank (12th), and Charlie Vater (13th). At Big Bronx last weekend, six debaters made it out of prelims, with Ellis Thompson, Louis Oh-Aronson, and Alice Frank ranking 5th, 7th, and 14th respectively in finals, and Raymond Chen, Lyla Storm, and Ryan Ho making semifinals.
Extemp:
Stuy Extemp has been blasting through these past few weeks at local and invitational tournaments. At First Regis, all JV Extempers were recognized with three receiving half-qualifications for states: Mahjabin Ishika and Maria Lima-Corcoran placed 2nd in an unbreakable tie, Epshita Arien, 6th, and Minato Goto, 10th. At Hugh McEvoy Xavier, we did incredibly well championing both JV and Varsity Extemp with all finalists receiving half-quals. In JV, Sam Bokor and Mahjabin Ishika placed 1st and 6th, respectively. In Varsity, Myles Vuong, Caitlyn Chan, and Elina Siu placed 1st, 5th, and 6th.Â
We spoke on current events ranging from tariffs and our global trade system to the domestic deployment of the U.S. national guard. Just last weekend, Extempers competed at NYC Invitational where Myles Vuong broke to finals placing 6th and Elina Siu breaking to semi-finals. Be on the lookout for more successes coming this season, especially with the Stuy Extemp team gearing up its practices and novice training!
Lincoln Douglas:
LD had a wonderful time at Big Bronx this past weekend! We gained valuable experience and competed against tough competition from across the country. Shoutout to Alexis Qian (‘27) for placing as 10th speaker out of over 100 competitors! Thank you to all of our parent judges, as well as alumnus Daniel Zheng (‘25), for your time.
Additionally, as we pivot to our new topic on land rewilding, our novices have been hard at work in preparation for their first tournament yesterday. They’ve been so enthusiastic to learn and practice, and we were so excited to see them compete!
Parli:
Parli had a great time competing in the September and October NYPDL tournaments! At September In-Person, Alexander Georgatos & Lucas Miller placed 1st overall and won finals, Samuel Sunko & Katelyn Huang made it to varsity octos, Eloise Dugdale placed 6th in speaker awards and Jacob Spitzer placed 8th in speaker awards. At October Virtual, Alexander Georgatos placed 6th in speaker awards and made it to semis with Lucas Miller. We are so proud of everyone who attended those tournaments!
Policy:
Policy had a lot of fun competing at Big Bronx this past weekend, with an amazing performance from our team! Valerie Pook (‘27) and Seoyeon Yu (‘27), alongside Serenity Dingwall (‘26) and Amy Shrestha (‘26), achieved an impressive 4-2 record in prelims, making it to runoffs. The rest of the team learned a lot and gained valuable experience at one of the toughest tournaments of the year, and we can’t wait to get our novices competing soon! We’re continuing to delve deeper into our ‘25-’26 topic about the Arctic.Â
Public Forum:
Public Forum has had an amazing time this month so far, competing at both Big Bronx and Georgetown! At Big Bronx this past weekend, Solomon Binyaminov (‘26) and Annie Li (‘26) received a spectacular 4-2 record, making it to Triples. Congrats to Lander Bovenzi (‘27) and Adrien Devery-Michaelson (‘27) for making it to the Quarterfinals as well.
At Georgetown last weekend, Lander Bovenzi and Adrien Devery-Michaelson also broke to Doubles. Congrats also to Edwin Gelman (‘27) and Ethan Zheng (‘27) for breaking into Octofinals and placing 1st and 4th in speaker awards, respectively. The team has learned a lot through competing at these tournaments so far, and we are currently preparing our novices for the upcoming November topic of data encryption. We are incredibly proud of everyone who has competed so far!Â
Speech:
The Stuyvesant Speech team has been killing it with the start of the new season! At the First Regis tournament, competitors were extremely successful! In Dramatic Performance, Audrey Hilger (‘26) placed 2nd and a half qual to the state championship. In Programmed Oral Interpretation, Olivia Cisse (‘26) placed 1st and a full qual. In Duo Interpretation, Amanda Greenberg (‘26) and Sofia Lawrence (‘26) placed 1st and a full qual. In Original Oratory, Wendy Wang (‘27) placed 7th. At Big Bronx Invitational this weekend, we were also extremely successful! In Duo Interpretation, Micah Bierne (‘27) and Mariya Markova (‘27) made it to finals and placed 5th! In Original Oratory, Wendy Wang (‘27) made it to semis! We are so proud of every competitor! Every new member of the team has been working extremely hard with lab leaders, and we cannot wait to see what they can do.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update! We appreciate your time and effort to support the team. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any concerns or ideas.
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If you have any questions or would like to provide feedback, don't hesitate to reach out to us by responding to this email or contacting stuy4n6@gmail.com and mvuong60@stuy.edu. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
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