Founder & Curriculum Director

SunHee Simon graduated from Stanford University in 2019 (BA in African American History; MA in Sociology). Her debate accolades are many, ranging from being one of the first students to qualify to the Tournament of Champions in LD and Policy debate to representing the United States on Team USA to semi-finaling her freshman year of college at the CEDA Tournament in 2015. She has dedicated the past 8 years of her young career to coaching fantastic debaters who have reached accolades even more impressive than her own. This includes, but is not limited to, having several of her students on Team Texas as well as championing the Cal Invitational and TFA State. She is based at Coppell High School where she continues to coach, drill, laugh, and grow with her students every day.

Dawson is a senior at The University of Texas at Austin double majoring in Sustainability Studies and Government with minors in Applied Economics and Risk Management. He has been an assistance coach at Coppell High School for the past four years. In that time, he has coached teams to champion TFA State, win Berkeley twice, reach the semifinals at the TOC twice, and make it to late eliminations in numerous national tournaments. In his spare time Dawson loves thrifting, yapping, and coaching for Coppell Debate!

Dithyae is a freshman at Cornell University. As a senior, she was a member of Team Texas and the captain of her debate team. While Dithyae started her Speech and Debate career competing in Public Forum and Dramatic Interpretation, she ended her career ranked amongst the top 15 debaters across the country in World Schools Debate. Throughout her 4 years in Worlds she championed the 2024 Greenhill Fall Classic, the 2024 Isidore Newman Invitational, and reached late elimination rounds at several notable national and international tournaments such as the 2023 and 2024 TFA State tournament which she is a 3x qualifier for, the 2022 Longhorn Classic as well as several local tournaments. Internationally she has won 2nd Place at the 2023 Asian Online Debating Championship and was a quarterfinalist at the 2024 Western World Schools Debating Championship. Outside of debate, Dithyae loves spending time with people who make her happy, swimming, all kinds of dance, and finding new shows and books to become obsessed with. She is grateful and excited to share her debate knowledge with the WOWI campers!

Taite Kirkpatrick is currently a freshman at Dartmouth College. As a competitor from Mount Vernon High School, Taite was a 5x state champion, competing in impromptu and extemporaneous speaking as well as Lincoln-Douglas and World Schools. Their junior year, they become a member of Team USA, and their senior year they were recognized as 2025 National Speech and Debate Association's Student of the Year.

Safiya Azam is an incoming college freshman and is looking forward to a fun summer coaching at WOWI! Her debate accolades include representing her school on Team Texas and semifinaling as well as placing second speaker at the Tournament of Champions. When she isn’t involved in debate you can find her thrifting new pieces, working on her latest artwork, or in the theaters hooked on the latest film.

Erica Carranza is an incoming college freshman. She has competed in debate for six years, with experience across many events. She fell in love with World Schools at the end of her freshman year, when she competed at the Bluebonnet International World Schools Tournament and earned the 2nd Place Top Speaker Award. The following year, she quarterfinaled the TFA State Tournament and received the 1st Place Top Speaker Award at the UT Austin Longhorn Classic. During her junior year, she once again reached late outrounds at both the Longhorn Classic and TFA State. She capped off the season by finaling the Tournament of Champions with a near-perfect prelim record and earning the 14th Place Speaker Award (tied with the two competitors above her). She would go on to octofinal the NSDA National Tournament. In her final year of debate, Erica received the First Place Speaker Award at the Coppell Round Robin, championed the UT Austin Longhorn Classic, and competed as part of Team Texas, where she reached late outrounds and earned the Fifth Place Top Speaker Award at Isidore Newman. Her favorite speaker positions are the 2 and 4, and she is excited to pass down everything she has learned.

Arnav Kakarala is a senior at Carroll Senior High School and has debated for four years. He began debate in public forum before moving to World Schools, qualifying to state in Worlds twice and reaching elimination rounds in his junior year. He has also competed in and won local tournaments, like Plano West, New Tech, etc., and was a finalist at the Longhorn Classic. Outside of debate, he enjoys making jokes, running, and trying new things.

Ananya Nair is a senior at Coppell High School. She has been a debater for 4 years, winning the 2025 Coppell Classic, reaching semifinals at TOC 2x (2024 and 2025), and becoming 8th speaker at TFA State (2024). Outside of debate, Ananya loves to binge fun sitcoms, try new coffee shops, and make super specific Spotify playlists.

Emma Zhao will graduate from Coppell Highschool in 2026. She has done World Schools Debate since sophomore year. In her time on the circuit, she has championed the UC Berkeley Cal Invitational, UNT Tournament, Centennial Titan Tournament. She’s qualified for state all three years and received 8th speaker at the UT Austin Longhorn Classic in 2025. Outside of debate, she loves spending time with friends and family, baking, going on walks, and more!

Sophie is an incoming freshman at Northwestern University. As a competitor from The Kinkaid School, she has competed in World Schools, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum debate. In Worlds, she championed the King Round Robin, and semifinaled both Greenhill and Bluebonnet as a member of Team Texas. In both LD and PF, she qualified to the Tournament of Champions where she was in the late elimination rounds of Churchill, Lexington, and TFA State. Outside of debate, Sophie enjoys going out with friends, listening to music, painting and crafting, and reading.