Meet Our Instructors
Illuminate SD prides itself on our qualified high school instructors who are experienced and accomplished in their respective events. We also arrange for guest speakers to come to our lessons throughout the year. As we expand we plan on adding more instructors to our repertoire. The following is our current group of instructors.
Speech Instructor: Neha Palvai
Neha Palvai is currently a student at UC Berkeley. In high school, she served as the Co-President of the Lynbrook Speech and Debate club. Neha has been competitively involved in speech and theater since she was ten years old and has performed in plays with audiences of 1100+ people, professionally recorded advertisements for the radio, and been accredited by the Trinity College of London and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Performance and Communication. With Aishwarya, she ran the Lynbrook Speech and Debate Summer Camp for two years and she ran her first theater and speech summer camp at the age of 12. Her specific events of expertise include Oratorical Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, and Impromptu Speaking for which she has won national and international tournaments at the varsity level. She currently trains students in Original Oratory, Domestic Extemp, Impromptu, and Oratorical Interp and has consistently led students to final places in Varsity/Open levels at national tournaments.
Debate Instructor: Aish Shirahatti
Aishwarya Shirahatti is currently a student at Cal Poly SLO and served as the other Co-President of Lynbrook Speech at Debate with Neha! She has been competing in Public Forum Debate for the last 5 years and has attended and placed at national tournaments in the varsity division. During her sophomore year of high school, she taught and helped facilitate operations at Miller Middle School's Speech and Debate's program. In high school, she also served as the captain of Public Forum and taught Public Forum debate to over 20 novices, some of whom went on to win national titles later that year. For two years, she co-organized the renowned Lynbrook Speech and Debate Summer Camp, and hosted 150 kids. She hopes to share the skills she has gained from her countless tournaments and years debating with Illuminate SD students and delve into the insider's tips to argumentation. Being a current member of the debate world, she knows what it takes to succeed at tournaments in the status quo and subtle things students can do in order to develop a competitive edge.
Speech Instructor: Akul Murthy
Akul Murthy is a student at Lynbrook High School. He is currently serving as the Co-President of Lynbrook Speech and Debate for the 22-23 school year. Akul has been competitively involved in the speech & debate community for 5+ years, competing in Public Forum Debate, Impromptu Speech, and Extemporaneous Speaking. Akul has coached and run the Lynbrook Speech and Debate summer camp for 3 years & has lots of experience in curriculum writing and implementation. Furthemore, Akul is a double-octofinalist at the TOC, a double-quarter finalist at the NIETOC, and has placed at numerous other prestigious tournaments. He is top 10 in California in Impromptu & top 30 in California for Extemporaneous. He would love to work with students of any age who are interested in learning more about Impromptu and Extemporaneous, and even help them win tournaments within their first year!
Speech Instructor: Neha Thakur
Neha Thakur is currently a student at Notre Dame High school and serves as the Co-Speech Captain for the Notre Dame Speech and Debate team. Being a part of speech leadership, she has worked closely with both novice and varsity kids, helping them develop and present their speeches. She spent several hours in her sophomore volunteering with TeachSpeech, an organization that expands public speaking education, as well as Old Orchard Middle school, preparing students for their upcoming tournaments. In her freshman and sophomore year, she helped run middle school workshops at her school by teaching the basics of speech and debate and helping run tournaments. She has been competing in various speech events for the past two years and has placed at local and national tournaments. Competing extensively has helped her discover the the power of single voice. By teaching at Illuminate, she hopes to help students become confident speakers.
Speech Instructor: Nyna Velamuri
Nyna Velamuri is currently a junior at Lynbrook High School, and is actively serving as a member of Lynbrook Speech and Debate. Last year, Nyna was the captain of Lynbrook's Impromptu Speech team, leading the team to victories and advance placements in tournaments. Nyna has been competing with Lynbrook Speech for the last two years, and has gotten to the final rounds of multiple tournaments including the state league "CFL", Santa Clara University tournament, and the State qualifiers. She has also taught at the Lynbrook SD summer camp for one year. Having taught people multiple people these skills, Nyna feels that she has learned the many complicated details and strategies to be the best speaker possible. She is extremely excited to help students at Illuminate discover their voice!
Debate Instructor: Neha Mannem
Neha Mannem is currently a junior at Lynbrook High School and is a part of Lynbrook Speech and Debate as a public forum debater. She has been actively competing in tournaments for four years and has advanced to elimination rounds at multiple, including placing at national level tournaments. Neha has previously volunteered at the Lynbrook Speech and Debate Summer Camp, teaching middle schoolers speech and public forum, and has also helped out at Miller Speech and Debate’s practices. Outside of the debate realm, Neha teaches younger children Taekwondo, which is where her passion for teaching originated from. She hopes to implement her combined interests, in debate as well as in working with kids, to provide an educational and engaging environment for students at Illuminate. Neha aims to have every student leave class having gained a broader perspective and implementable strategies/skills for debate and the real world, while still being able to look at their time at Illuminate as a fun experience.
Debate Instructor: Shriya Araveeti
Shriya Araveeti is currently a junior at Lynbrook High School and an active member of the Lynbrook Speech and Debate . Competing in public forum, she has learned many strategies and skills needed to be a successful debater. She has been able to identify and master critical techniques by attending and placing at numerous tournaments over the past four years. Shriya has taught at Lynbrook Speech and Debate Camp for two summers and also worked with Miller’s Speech and Debate program. She is looking forward to implementing unique instructional practices developed from personal experience to improve the students' learning and performance. Shriya hopes to help Illuminate students improve their communication and impromptu speaking.
Debate Instructor: Twisha Sundararajan
Twisha Sundararajan is a student at Lynbrook High School and currently serves as the “Head of Debate” for the Lynbrook Speech and Debate club. Last year, she was the “Head of Volunteering” where she helped organize Miller Middle School's Speech and Debate program and coached both novice and varsity kids. She has also taught at the Lynbrook Speech and Debate Summer Camp for the past two years. In the summer of 2018, being part of the admin team, she also organized the summer camp which had an enrollment of over 100 kids. She has been competing in Public Forum Debate for the last 4 years and has placed at several international level tournaments. Having attended numerous tournaments, she has gained key insight on the successful strategies and common pitfalls of debating which she hopes to share with Illuminate students. Twisha has a passion for teaching and would love to share her debating skills with others and how careful preparation can produce effective results.
