Students shine in speech and debate tournament

James Logan High School Forensics had a historic performance at the 2025 National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Speech & Debate Tournament. For the 27th year, they earned a top team award—the School of Outstanding Distinction, the top award that can be earned by a team at nationals. With over 4,000 schools in attendance, this was an amazing accomplishment. 

Students also earned individual success across categories of upward of 250+ competitors: 

• Noah Martinez – 3rd place Humorous Interpretation (auto-qualified to 2026 Nationals)

• Kary Deng – 7th place Congressional Debate (auto-qualified to 2026 Nationals)

• Unnati Seshadri – 7th place Humorous Interpretation 

• Dulshika Wickramasinghe – 7th place Dramatic Interpretation 

• Emily Fortunak – 9th place Program Oral Interpretation 

• Vikram Dawar – 9th place Duo Interpretation 

• Hope Ott – 9th place Duo Interpretation 

• Martin Lee – 13th place Dramatic Interpretation (auto-qualified to 2026 Nationals)

• Pedro Rodriguez – 17th place Dramatic Interpretation 

• Inder Bura – Congressional Debate Semifinalist 

• Leah Kim – Octofinalist (Top 60) in Informative 

• Avyaya Kumar – Octofinalist (Top 60) in Oratory 

• Miles Chan-Welch – Octofinalist (Top 60) in Duo Interpretation 

• Cordell Johnson – Octofinalist (Top 60) in Duo Interpretation 

• Dylan Ngo – Octofinalist (Top 60) in Humorous Interpretation 

• Giavanna Deperio – Octofinalist (Top 60) in Program Oral Interpretation