Authors

After falling in love with debate at the first tournament she watched, Charis competed in Stoa for five years. During that time, she participated in every speech and debate event that Stoa offered, including multiple wildcards. She broke to speech finals in a variety of events including Apologetics, Extemporaneous, Expository, Interp in a Box, Impromptu, Open Interpretation, and Oratory Analysis, finishing her career by competing in Extemporaneous finals at the national tournament. During her senior year, Charis placed in the top two Lincoln Douglas Speakers at seven tournaments, eventually going on to become the season-long Lincoln Douglas Speaker Champion and Speaker Champion at nationals. Charis won Lincoln Douglas and Parliamentary Debate finals at numerous tournaments during her career. Currently, Charis is a junior at Liberty University pursuing a degree in Political Science and Business. When she is not coaching, Charis enjoys practicing flute, piano, and voice, organizing events, and working as a construction estimator.

Over the course of six years in speech and debate, Aryanna amassed hundreds of rounds of experience, finished her competitive seasons with over 100 top-three finishes in various events, and developed a passion for effective communication, edifying persuasion, and meaningful debates. That passion has continued outside of the high school arena as she studies Public Relations on a full-ride scholarship at Union University and works as a public speaker for the Make-A-Wish Organization. In her free time, Aryanna loves spending time with her family, coffee runs with friends, traveling, and outdoor activities.

Hudson competed in Stoa for five years. He won tournaments in Lincoln Douglas, Team Policy, and Parliamentary Debate as well as numerous speech events. He has given coaching and assistance with positive results to multiple debaters across all debate formats, in addition to having competed in almost every speech event. Outside of speech and debate, Hudson enjoys playing the piano, chess, discussing theology and philosophy, and learning as much as possible.  

My name is Levi Magness. I competed in Stoa Speech and Debate from 7th to 12th grade. I debated in Lincoln Douglas, Team Policy, and Parli formats. For speech, I competed in numerous platforms, limited preps, and interps. Outside of Stoa, I like to spend time with my family and church communities, get outside, and am currently pursuing my Bachelor's degree in Engineering.

John has competed in Stoa for six years and has been involved in the Stoa community since 2011. Beginning with Apologetics and Lincoln Douglas only, he eventually added more events to his repertoire. Through his senior year, John proceeded to consistently place highly in all 10 of his regular events, eventually earning first place titles in Apologetics, Impromptu, Extemporaneous, Original Oratory, Expository, Open Interpretation, Parliamentary, Parliamentary speaker points, Lincoln Douglas, Lincoln Douglas speaker points, and Team Policy. His favorite speech was his Expository with which he won six tournaments. At NITOC 2023, John won the national titles in Lincoln Douglas debate and Apologetics speaking, broke the NITOC record for picket fences with seven, and was awarded the second-place Tournament Champion award.

Caleb Tham is a Stoa alumnus who participated in speech and debate for six years. He has competed at NITOC in 11 different events and was awarded the Stoa Founders Award on two occasions. Most recently, Caleb attended NITOC 2022, where he won 1st place Lincoln Douglas Speaker. With over 500 rounds of competitive debate experience and over 200 hours of speech and debate coaching experience, Caleb is excited to be given the opportunity to assist the next generation of speech and debate champions. In his free time, Caleb enjoys running, music, video games, and reading. In the fall of 2023, Caleb will enter his second year at Oral Roberts University with a full-tuition scholarship to study medical molecular biology, biochemistry, psychology, and drama.

During her four years in Stoa, Sophia Wright competed in Team Policy for two years and Lincoln Douglas and Parliamentary for one. After a senior season of consistently advancing to outrounds and winning two tournaments, she finished the season ranked eleventh in the nation in Lincoln Douglas. She also competed in platforms, limited prep, and interpretive speech events, obtaining several first-place finishes at local tournaments and finishing 5th at Nationals in Persuasive her senior year. In her free time, Sophia loves playing cards, cooking, and singing with her sisters.

PC: Lindsey Landrum Photography

After five years of competition, Joseph is entering his senior year. Focusing primarily on debate events and limited prep speaking, Joseph competes in Team Policy, Lincoln Douglas, and Parliamentary Debate, as well as Apologetics and Extemporaneous. During his time in Stoa, Joseph has won Team Policy and Lincoln Douglas Speaker awards across multiple years. With multiple partners, Joseph has won Team Policy and Parliamentary Debate at large tournaments and competed in finals multiple times. At the National Invitational Tournament of Champions in 2021 Joseph competed in the quarterfinal round in Parliamentary Debate and got 7th place overall. Joseph has also competed in the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association league. This year, Joseph will be competing in Stoa's Team Policy Debate.

Annika's journey in speech and debate began after years of timing tournaments. She competed for three years in numerous events. During her time in competition, she advanced to dozens of finals, earning multiple first-place finishes. At Nationals her senior year she achieved a fifth-place finish in Team Policy debate to solidify her and her partner as the fourth-place season-long Team Policy team in 2023 Today, Annika uses her communication skills in the world of missions, working as an onboarding specialist, where she assists aspiring missionaries in getting to the field. When she's not working, Annika enjoys playing and writing music, spending time with family and friends, hiking, traveling, and rock climbing.