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
2026 NYSFL New York State Grand Championship Tournament Finalists
- Varsity Public Forum Debate
- Champions: Lander Bovenzi (’27) and Adrien Devery-Michaelson (’27)
- Intermediate Public Forum Debate
- 2nd Place: Zachary Massim (’28) and Alexandra (Sasha) Silakov (’28)
- Duo Interpretation
- Champions: Micah Beirne (’27) and Mariya Markova (’27)
- 3rd Place: Amanda Greenberg (’26) and Sofia Lawrence (’26)
- 5th Place: Audrey Hilger (’26) and Ada Gordon (’26)
- Program Oral Interpretation
- Champion: Milan Gittens (’26)
- 2nd Place: Olivia Cisse (’26)
- 4th Place: Anna Schaible (’28)
- Original Oratory
- Champion: Amanda Greenberg (’26)
- 5th Place: Zoe Yoon (’28)
- Humorous Interpretation
- 3rd Place: Jaydon Mei (’27)
- 4th Place: Henry Santos Hendricks (’26)
- 5th Place: Sofia Lawrence (’26)
- JV Oral Interpretation
- 2nd Place: Anna Schaible (’28)
- 4th Place: Claire Stansberry (’28)
- Varsity Oral Interpretation
- 2nd Place: Jaydon Mei (’27)
- Varsity Extemporaneous Speaking
- 4th Place: Myles Vuong (’26)
- 5th Place: Elina Siu (’27)
- Student Congress
- 9th Place: Louis Oh-Aronson (’26)
- 10th Place: Ellis Thompson (’26)
- 12th Place: Lyla Storm (’27)
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.
