Donations at Work: Stuyvesant Speech and Debate Wins 2026 New York State Forensic League Championship
Parent support made an extraordinary season possible for Stuyvesant High School Speech & Debate. Stuyvesant High School was named the 2026 Overall Team Sweepstakes Champion at the New York State Forensic League Grand Championship, earning top honors across speech and debate. Stuyvesant teams and students achieved championship and finalist placements in Public Forum Debate, Speech, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Student Congress and other events.
This is what Annual Appeal dollars look like on the ground. Parent giving helped cover the season of tournament registration fees, judging fees, and coaching fees – the expenses that stand between a talented student and the room where they compete. None of it is covered by the DOE budget.
And this year, Stuyvesant High School was named the overall New York State Champion in both Speech and Debate.
The achievement belongs to the students, and to Dr. Seung Yu and the administration, the Stuyvesant High School Parents' Association, the Stuyvesant Alumni Association, Ms. Dina Ingram, Ms. Julie Sheinman, our coaches, chaperones, and the parent volunteer judges who gave countless hours to our students and to the wider speech and debate community.
Stuyvesant High School Sweeps the Top Spots
Sweepstakes Awards, presented to the top five schools in New York State in each category
• Public Forum Debate — Champion
• Speech — The Sister Mary Raimonde Award, Champion
• Lincoln-Douglas Debate — 2nd Place
• Student Congress — 3rd Place
State Finalists
• Varsity Public Forum Debate — Lander Bovenzi (’27) & Adrien Devery-Michaelson (’27), Champions
• Intermediate Public Forum Debate — Zachary Massim (’28) & Alexandra (Sasha) Silakov (’28), 2nd
• Duo Interpretation — Micah Beirne (’27) & Mariya Markova (’27), Champions · Amanda Greenberg (’26) & Sofia Lawrence (’26), 3rd · Audrey Hilger (’26) & Ada Gordon (’26), 5th
• Program Oral Interpretation — Milan Gittens (’26), Champion · Olivia Cisse (’26), 2nd · Anna Schaible (’28), 4th
• Original Oratory — Amanda Greenberg (’26), Champion · Zoe Yoon (’28), 5th
• Humorous Interpretation — Jaydon Mei (’27), 3rd · Henry Santos Hendricks (’26), 4th · Sofia Lawrence (’26), 5th
• JV Oral Interpretation — Anna Schaible (’28), 2nd · Claire Stansberry (’28), 4th
• Varsity Oral Interpretation — Jaydon Mei (’27), 2nd
• Varsity Extemporaneous Speaking — Myles Vuong (’26), 4th · Elina Siu (’27), 5th
• Student Congress — Louis Oh-Aronson (’26), 9th · Ellis Thompson (’26), 10th · Lyla Storm (’27), 12th
Speech & Debate is one of dozens of programs the Parents’ Association supports. All year, Donations at Work will feature them one by one — because this is what parent giving actually buys.
