Henry joined YDL on Mar 3, 2023. He is the debate club president of Magee Secondary School and has about 4 years of debate experience. He has debated in multiple formats such as World Schools, British Parliamentary, cross-examination, and CNDF, but he specializes in World Schools and British parliamentary as the second/third speaker. He has attended debate tournaments such as Harvard, SFU, CUSID, WSDO, UBC, Western, and more. Besides debate, Henry participates in basketball, rugby, and writing. He looks forward to working with students!
Adam is an experienced debater who has been participating at a competitive level for over 7 years. He has won many speaker and team awards at international tournaments such as Stanford, Harvard, Georgetown, and the Tournament of Champions. Adam first heard about debate at a seminar and decided to pursue it further. From debate, he has learned to think more critically, to write more effectively, to speak more convincingly, and to pay more attention to the world around him. In his free time, Adam likes reading, playing the piano, and going out with friends.
Adam first came up with the idea of Youth Debate League when he offered to teach a debate class free of charge for 15 students but received over 40 sign ups in less than 4 days. The number of people that signed up in the short amount of time despite the limit helped him realize the need for free, accessible debate education and inspired him to create an organization of like-minded people that work to make the art of debate an opportunity available to everyone.
Adam is an experienced debater who has been participating at a competitive level for over 5 years. He has won many speaker and team awards at international tournaments such as Stanford, Harvard, Georgetown, and the Tournament of Champions. Adam first heard about debate at a seminar and decided to pursue it further. From debate, he has learned to think more critically, to write more effectively, to speak more convincingly, and to pay more attention to the world around him. In his free time, Adam likes reading, playing the piano, and going out with friends.
Adam first came up with the idea of Youth Debate League when he offered to teach a debate class free of charge for 15 students but received over 40 sign ups in less than 4 days. The number of people that signed up in the short amount of time despite the limit helped him realize the need for free, accessible debate education and inspired him to create an organization of like-minded people that work to make the art of debate an opportunity available to everyone.
Executive Team
Nishesh joined YDL on January 29, 2023. He is a student attending Semiahmoo Secondary School. He has debated various formats over the course of three years. His debate journey started at a regionals tournament and has spiraled to attending various prestigious international tournaments. Nishesh has achieved excellence in debate and has received awards across all levels of debate. He has attended tournaments hosted by Harvard, Stanford, UBC, SFU, Waterloo, and has even taken part in the BC Law Foundation Cup twice. Nishesh is a very social person and outside of debate he loves to talk to his friends and go out. He also plays Soccer and Basketball. He is really excited for the opportunity to coach at YDL and is looking forward to helping others exceed at this wonderful activity!
jain.nishesh@youthdebate.ca
Sophie joined YDL Nov 9, 2023. She is an experienced youth in leadership and marketing management. She is the Media and Marketing head of Peer Leadership council in Elgin Park Secondary, the Chief of Finance in Youth Hunger Mission Foundation, Onboarding coordinator in Internal affairs of Canada Youth Climate Action team, selected youth teachers teaching Dollar with Sense in JA British Columbia Program and advanced entry for Conrad challenge 2023. Aside from Leadership, Sophie enjoys playing music in her spare time. She is a professional performer of the traditional instrument Zheng, started playing at the age of 4, and reached level 10 within 6 years, and is the first part Zheng of Azalea Ensemble under the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Sophie looks forward to this wonderful journey with the YDL family.
zhang.sophie@youthdebate.ca
Coaches
Raymond Li
Raymond joined YDL on Jan 15, 2022 and is a co-founder of YDL. Raymond is student at Semiahmoo Secondary. He has been debating for two years and has received several awards from local and national tournaments in various different styles of debate. He has only started attending tournaments for one year and has been a finalist in the Vancouver World Schools Tournament and La Costa Canyon World Schools Tournament and a quarterfinalist in the Stanford Invitational. He has also received multiple speaker awards including 5th speaker in the Varsity division at The Ed Long Invitational at The Hockaday School. Outside of debate, Raymond plays competitive badminton and hockey and is a certified snowboarding instructor. He looks forward to working with everyone!
li.raymond@youthdebate.ca
Brooke Ji
Brooke joined YDL on Oct 3, 2022. A student at Collingwood School’s Morven Campus, Brooke has dedicated over two years to debate. Since his beginnings at the start of the 2020 year, he has gone on to win awards at local, provincial, and global tournaments in a variety of styles, including BC provincials, SFU, and Harvard. Debate has truly helped him grow as an open-minded individual and learner, as well as provided valuable skills in critical thinking and persuasion. When he isn’t giving a speech at his school’s debate club or researching for the next debate topic you can find him reading, playing video games with his friends, hiking, or best of all, taking an undeserved nap.
ji.brooke@youthdebate.ca
Eva Wang
Eva joined YDL on Sept 7, 2022 and is a student at West Point Grey Academy. Since she first began debating in 2021, she has received multiple awards at various tournaments ranging from local to national in different styles. This included placing as the champion team in the 2022 Junior Provincial Debate Tournament, 2021 Interschool Debate Cup, 2022 Appleby Novice Tournament, and ranking as the first team in the 2022 Canadian Junior National Debating Championships. She also has won numerous speaker awards, including first junior speaker at the 2021 Vancouver World Schools Debate Tournament, 2022 Provincial Debate Tournament, 2022 SFU World Schools Invitational, as well as the first overall speaker at the 2022 McMaster High Schools BP Debate Tournament. Despite her short time debating, Eva has accumulated plenty of experience that she looks forward to sharing. Outside of debate, Eva often finds herself playing basketball with her friends or school team, practicing the violin, or spending time with her friends. She also has recently taken up Model UN and was a director of the Advanced Crisis Committee for the Vancouver Youth Model United Nations conference. She looks forward to working with her peers and is extremely grateful to be a part of such a progressive organization.
wang.eva@youthdebate.ca
Student Management Team
Marketing Team
Daniel Zuo
Daniel joined YDL on Jan 29, 2023. He is a hardworking debater who stumbled into debate out of curiosity in grade 8. He found the experience extremely fulfilling, and through debate he has met many new friends and overcame his fear of public speaking. Daniel strives to constantly improve and absorb more knowledge of debate. Outside of debating, he is constantly involved in extracurriculars and especially community work. Daniel is involved in multiple clubs in his school and is working to making a change in the world!
zuo.daniel@youthdebate.ca
Funding Team
Website Team
Jessica Yang
Jessica joined YDL on Mar 5, 2023. She is a student attending Semiahmoo Secondary. She participates in many extracurricular activities and has an interest in foreign languages and mathematics. She likes to challenge herself and experiment with new ideas whenever she can. Some of her hobbies include reading and photography.
yang.jessica@youthdebate.ca