2022 New Jersey District Student of the Year
Siddharth Satish – West Windsor Plainsboro North
WEST DES MOINES, IA (June 19, 2022) – The National Speech & Debate Association is pleased to announce Siddharth Satish as the 2022 National High School Student of the Year Second Runner Up.
The William Woods Tate, Jr. National Student of the Year award, is one of the most honorable and renowned student awards given by the National Speech & Debate Association presented by Richard Bitner in honor of Bob Stockton. The Student of the Year is awarded to a graduating senior member who has been honored as a District Student of the Year and who best represents the tenets of the Association’s Code of Honor: humility, equity, integrity, respect, leadership, and service.
Every year the award recognizes one student from nearly 200,000 student members of the National Speech & Debate Association. Nominees must also demonstrate strong academic credentials and a commitment to the speech and debate community. The six finalists interviewed with an esteemed panel of educators during the National Speech & Debate Tournament on June 12, 2022. Siddharth, or Sidd as they are referred to by friends and teammates, along with their fellow nominees were honored during the National Tournament Awards Assembly on Friday, June 17, which was streamed live online at live.speechanddebate.org.
This particular accolade is now one of many enormous accomplishments for Sidd. At their young age Sidd has already used the skills of speech and debate to reach their community far outside the classroom. As a member of the speech and debate team at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, Sidd has broken down barriers to entry that many students before them were unable to overcome. Sidd’s coach, Christian Fletcher, recalls that “Since the inception of our school’s speech and debate program in 2000, we did not send a single student to nationals until Siddharth in 2020. The main barriers to our schools entry into this field was financial and logistical and Siddharth fought both those barriers.” From their sophomore to junior year in high school, Siddharth has paid for the school NSDA dues using an essay scholarship renewed annually. Having noticed the financial barrier to entry for our school, Siddharth completed an essay contest and received a $300 scholarship from the American Fleet Reserve Association to pay for the school’s NSDA state and national membership. Since then, they have worked to take more students to nationals and in 2021, our school sent their first pair of students to nationals ever.
After being named a finalist to Team USA debate in 2020, Siddharth began the first year round competitive world schools debate team in New Jersey. While the awards speak for themselves, it is worth noting that up until nationals of 2021 the success of the team was due in large part to the veteran student leadership that Siddharth exemplified, oftentimes taking on a student-coaching role. The creation of this team has not just impacted the NSDA district but also the nation since Texas formed their state-round world schools debate team just a year after Siddharth.
Siddharth exudes leadership not just within the New Jersey district but also internationally. They lead a social science magazine called PEP (Politics, Economics, and Philosophy) which serves to increase transgender, sexual minority, and racial minority representation in the social sciences. Their magazines and audiobooks have been distributed by the African Union Watch in partnership with the African Union to 53 African Member states and through Aid Afghanistan with the Afghan ministry of education, reaching 100,000 students.
Siddharth leads International Association of Political Science students as its first trans and high school chair, as well as UNICEF’s national youth council (15 were selected out of 800). They also served as a youth delegate to the United Nations from Ariel Foundation International and a youth council member for the World Humanitarian Forum. In these capacities they have spoken at 10 UN events on racial and queer rights, published 11 reports to the ECOSOC, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, and have led eight equity and policy consultations with members of the UN SecGen Envoy on Youth, G7, UNESCO, UNITAR.
Sidd qualified for the NSDA National Tournament beating out thousands of students for his spot at the largest speech and debate competition in the world. This past week he competed in World School’s Debate. World Schools Debate is a three-on-three format. While a given team may consist of five members, only three students from a team participate in a given debate. Debaters present their position on a topic, refute their opponents, and respond to questions throughout the course of the debate.
In addition to being given a plaque for this honor at the awards ceremony on Jun 17, 2022 Sidd was also awarded a $1,500 scholarship from Richard Bitner in honor of Bob Stockton for being named a Student of the Year Finalist. The National Speech and Debate Association is extremely proud to hold up Sidd as a phenomenal example of what can be accomplished by the hard work and dedication of young students in the activity of speech and debate. The association cannot wait to see what the future holds for Sidd and their fellow Student of the Year Nominees.
From the National Speech and Debate Association:
Each NSDA District has the opportunity to name a District Student of the Year award, presented to a graduating senior who best represents the tenets of the Association’s Code of Honor: integrity, respect, humility, leadership, and service. Nominees must also demonstrate strong academic credentials and a commitment to the speech and debate community. District winners must be selected and reported to the national office by May 1, 2020.
Each year, six students who win the district award are selected as finalists for the William Woods Tate, Jr., National Student of the Year award. Finalists interview with an esteemed panel of educators during the National Speech & Debate Tournament, and the National Student of the Year is announced during the National Awards Assembly.
Past District Students of the Year
| Year | Student | School |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Akshat Parthiban | Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School |
| 2020 | Roopa Irakam | Watchung Hills Regional |
| 2019 | Christopher Maximos | Delbarton |
| 2018 | Evan Tong | Livingston |
| 2017 | Matthew Colon | Summit |
| 2016 | Ryan Hosler | Delbarton |
| 2015 | Noah Weinflash | Montville |
| 2014 | Chase Harrison | Millburn |
| 2013 | Abraham Mendelson | Montville |
NSDA Academic All-Americans
| Year | Student | School |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Vikram Agrawal | Ridge |
| 2020 | Rohan Amin | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Ananya Bijala | Montville |
| 2020 | Orin Bolitho | Princeton |
| 2020 | Dylan Cawley | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Avereen Chahal | Montville |
| 2020 | Theodore Fraenkel-Thonet | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Jan Gajewski | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Sachin Gulati | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Deepa Irakam | Watching Hills Regional |
| 2020 | William Li | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Brenna McConnell | Randolph |
| 2020 | Jay Mulay | Montville |
| 2020 | Pierce Munsey | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Viktoria Popovska | Montivlle |
| 2020 | Asha Prahbat | Freehold Township |
| 2020 | Aditya Sharma | Montville |
| 2020 | Connor Teehan | Delbarton |
| 2020 | Bryce Waldmann | Delbarton |
| 2019 | Arthur Wayne | Millburn |
| 2019 | Hunter Ayala | Elizabeth |
| 2019 | Brian Zhu | Millburn |
| 2019 | Justin Dolalas | Elizabeth |
| 2019 | Kevin Wang | Millburn |
| 2019 | Andrew Fostiropoulos | Delbarton |
| 2019 | Christine Sun | Montville |
| 2019 | Rehan Haneef | Princeton |
| 2019 | Jenny Sun | Montville |
| 2019 | Katherine Hu | Randolph |
| 2019 | Madison Motroni | Millburn |
| 2019 | Roopa Irakam | Watchung HIlls |
| 2019 | Mariam Mohsin | Montville |
| 2019 | Nicole Nissel | Randolph |
| 2019 | Ranen Miao | Millburn |
| 2019 | Daniel Shahab | Princeton |
| 2019 | Kevin Mao | Montville |
| 2019 | Allison Wu | Randolph |
| 2019 | Andrew Lin | Montville |
| 2019 | Anoop Bhat | Montville |
| 2019 | Cameran Ko | Montville |
| 2019 | Christopher Maximos | Delbarton |
| 2019 | Arnold Jia | Millburn |
| 2019 | Verina Megala | Montville |
| 2019 | Amanda Huang | Millburn |
| 2019 | Sinduja Sivakumar | Montville |
| 2019 | Anthony Fosu | Matawan Regional |
| 2019 | Lorrin Stone | Montville |
| 2019 | Somil Agarwal | Millburn |
| 2018 | Ashley Feng | Montville |
| 2018 | Francis Ilankumaran | Montville |
| 2018 | Harish Rajagopal | Montville |
| 2018 | Julia Thompson | Matawan Regional |
| 2018 | Allison Weiss | Montville |
| 2018 | Kathryn Altman | Randolph |
| 2018 | Evan Tong | Livingston |
| 2017 | Jai Bansal | Millburn |
| 2017 | James Chen | Millburn |
| 2017 | Ila Kaul | Millburn |
| 2017 | Anna Landre | Freehold Township |
| 2017 | Kimberly Lee | Summit |
| 2017 | Carrie Mason | Millburn |
| 2017 | Jack Schroeder | Delbarton |
| 2017 | David Yaffe | Millburn |
| 2017 | Tierney Egan | Freehold Township |
| 2017 | Bryn Bennett | Randolph |
| 2017 | Samuel Brumer | Montville |
| 2017 | Shefali Das | Randolph |
| 2017 | Caitlyn Dempsey | Randolph |
| 2017 | Asher Gilani | Montville |
| 2017 | Carly Goldsmith | Montville |
| 2017 | Andrew Hong | Montville |
| 2017 | Alan Lai | Montville |
| 2017 | Brian Laurito | Montville |
| 2017 | Andy Lee | Montville |
| 2017 | Daniel Jin Lee | Montville |
| 2017 | Emily Liao | Montville |
| 2017 | Amy Pu | Randolph |
| 2017 | Andrew Sun-Yan | Montville |
| 2017 | Ravi Upadhya | Montville |
| 2016 | John Beute | Delbarton |
| 2016 | Ethan Czerniecki | Delbarton |
| 2016 | Zachary Feldman | Montville |
| 2016 | Arushi Gupta | Montville |
| 2016 | Ryan Hosler | Delbarton |
| 2016 | Harry Kern | Randolph |
| 2016 | Vinayak Kumar | Delbarton |
| 2016 | Sage O'Toole | Freehold Township |
| 2016 | Nithya Reddy | Montville |
| 2016 | Anjali Shah | Montville |
| 2016 | Sean Taltavall | Montville |
| 2015 | Shad Yasin | Montville |
| 2015 | Jai Amin | Delbarton |
| 2015 | Nicholas Ayala | Delbarton |
| 2015 | James Burnett | Montville |
| 2015 | James Dolan | Delbarton |
| 2015 | Natasha Dusaj | Montville |
| 2015 | Alexander Eichler | Delbarton |
| 2015 | Vicky Han | Montville |
| 2015 | Pranav Kumar | Montville |
| 2015 | Christopher Mayer | Montville |
| 2015 | Dana Murphy | Montville |
| 2015 | Alexandros Pandazis | Montville |
| 2015 | Muhil Ravichandran | Montville |
| 2015 | Stacy Wang | Montville |
| 2015 | Craig Chikis | Freehold Township |
| 2015 | Mark Rinder | Freehold Township |
| 2015 | Anaya Joshi | Matawan |
| 2014 | Thomas Abel | Delbarton |
| 2014 | August Atencio | Delbarton |
| 2014 | Aaron Bennett | Randolph |
| 2014 | Mark Bufanio | Delbarton |
| 2014 | Christina Costeas | Montville |
| 2014 | Michael Cuppari | Delbarton |
| 2014 | John Fitzgerald | Delbarton |
| 2014 | Abhinav Karale | Delbarton |
| 2014 | James Min | Montville |
| 2014 | Michael Mumma | Delbarton |
| 2014 | Braeden Reinoso | Delbarton |
| 2014 | Alison Shim | Ridge |
| 2014 | Claire Sullivan | Montville |
| 2014 | William Sun | Montville |
| 2014 | Ryan Teehan | Delbarton |
| 2014 | Harry Townsend | Delbarton |
| 2014 | Adin Vashi | Montville |
| 2014 | Noah Weinflash | Montville |
| 2014 | Kelly Xiang | Montville |
| 2014 | Derrick Yao | Delbarton |