iSpeech Debate Academy
Who we are
iSpeech Debate Academy was founded to provide public speaking and debate classes to students primarily in the GTA. Our mission is to develop the leaders of tomorrow by encouraging them to speak up today. Our coaches are highly successful competitive debaters, with years of experience competing and and judging across Canada and world.
We welcome students with a wide range of experience. We help students compete in local, national and international public speaking and debate tournaments. We help shy students develop their confidence to improve their studies.
We keep a low instructor to student ratio so that students can get plenty of valuable feedback and speaking time.
Coaches
Michael Chen
Michael Chen is a 3rd year business/political science dual degree student at the University of Pennsylvania and former member of the Canadian National Debate Team. In addition to five years of coaching experience, he was the 2022 provincial champion and has won at the University of Pennsylvania, Queens, Western, and the Hong Kong World Schools Debating Championships. Outside of debate, Michael is an investment analyst with the Penn Endowment as well as a two-time DECA provincial champion and the 2022 John West Memorial Scholar. He also served as co-chair on the Town of Aurora Youth Engagement Committee and was awarded the 2022 Aurora Youth Volunteer of the Year award.
Maria Xu
Maria is a rising sophomore at Harvard University. She was a member of Team Canada for two years and was a finalist at World Schools Debating Championships in 2023. She has been debating for upwards of 5 years and has experience in World Schools, BP, and CP. She is the champion of the Hart House High School Championships 2023 and UWaterloo High School Debate Tournament 2021, and has broken at numerous other tournaments, including making the finals of the Winter Holidays Open 2022 and UPenn Worlds Schools Tournament 2022 as well as the semifinals of the Paris Worlds Schools Championships 2022 and Oldham Cup 2023. At the university level, she is the champion of Swarthmore Novice as well as a breaking team at Ivy and Top 10 universities. When not debating, studying, or reading, Maria loves to take walks, bake bread, and peruse Twitter.
David Zu
David is a final year Finance & Economics student at the University of Toronto. He is the current president of the Hart House Debating Society. He has been competitively debating, in both high school and university, for five years. Some of his achievements include making novice finals at Yale IV and NAUDC, open finals at Waterloo and McMaster, and winning Seagrams IV. When he’s not debating, David enjoys playing piano, going on biking sessions with friends, and listening to rap.
Larissa Long
Larissa is a 3rd year university student studying Health Sciences at McMaster. This is her 7th year debating in both high school and university circuits. Some of her major accomplishments include being Novice Champion at Canadian Parliamentary Nationals in 2023, as well as multiple speaker awards, including 2nd speaker at Hart House, 2nd speaker at Queens, and multiple finalist and semifinalist awards. She has been coaching debate for ~5 years, and is incredibly excited for the upcoming semester!
Daniel Svirsky
Daniel is a 1L student at Western Law School. Entering his sixth competitive year, he has found success both in the Canadian high school circuit and international university circuit. Daniel has broken at over 15 tournaments hosted by renowned institutions such as Cornell University (Semi-finalist), the University of Southern California (finalist), McGill University, and King's college London (Pro-Am Champion). In his sophomore year alone, Daniel won the British Parliamentary National Championships. He is serving as the Vice President of Training of the University of Western Ontario Debate Society and executive director of the Canadian University Intercollegiate Society for Debate.
Tanush Agarwal
Tanush is a Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics student at the University of Oxford. Tanush has over 30 awards in both BP and WSDC, notably championing Western HST and CWSDC, making the Grand Finals of Hart House, WHO, and IDTL and the Semi-Finals of Harvard WSCI twice. He was also a member of the Canadian National Team, finishing in the Grand Finals of several major tournaments, including WSDC itself.
Stellar Zhang
Stellar is a current business and political science student at McGill University and has over four years of experience in competitive debating and represented Team Canada at the World Schools Debating Championships in 2022, where they ranked as quarterfinalists. Across her high school career, she has championed the Harvard World Schools Invitational, the Queen’s University Debate Championships, and the Hong Kong World Schools Debate Open.