Board of Directors
Michelle Ma is a senior at McLean High School in McLean, Virginia. At McLean, Michelle serves as the Head Captain of the debate team, was a 2015 NSDA Nationals attendee, and is currently ranked 3rd in the state of Virginia. She also co-founded IDEAL, a club that aims to foster nonpartisan political discussion of current events, at McLean and is a clarinet player in the McLean High School Marching Band and the McLean High School Symphonic Band. Outside of school, Michelle has worked as a legal clerk at two offices based in Vienna, VA: The Law Offices of Romney Wright, P.C. as well as the New Weiming Law Group, PLLC. She has also interned in the U.S. House of Representatives with Congressman Hastings from Florida's 20th district. Michelle is also a part of the National Speech and Debate Association's Student Leadership Committee where she was one of six people to be chosen to represent the NSDA at an internship with Elizabeth Arden and is currently the chair of the Urban Schools Speech and Debate subcommittee. Michelle's goal with Speak Up is to get as many people involved as possible in order to bring free public speaking education across the U.S.
Michelle Ma
Founder
Fatima Shahbaz is a junior at Mclean High School in Mclean, Virginia. Fatima's passion for public speaking first developed when she joined Model United Nations in the seventh grade at Longfellow Middle School. Although she didn't realize it at the time, Model U.N. was more to her than just a club- it was a life-changing activity. It gave her the confidence to "speak up" about issues she felt passionate about and was integral to the development of her personality and who she considers herself to be today. Since then, Fatima has attended over twenty conferences and now serves as the Undersecretary General for Mclean's Model UN team and the Chief of Staff for McMUNC I. However, her love for public speaking doesn't only exist within Model UN. Fatima joined Mclean's Public Forum debate team as a freshman and has loved it ever since. She currently serves as Mclean's Novice Director, where her duties surround the training of new debaters. She joined Speak Up because she wanted to give other students the same opportunities that were given to her and inspire a love for public speaking in every self conscious adolescent.
Fatima Shahbaz
Vice President
Allison Meakem
Media Director
Allison Meakem is a senior at McLean High School in McLean, Virginia. Allison is a competitive gymnast on her club and high school teams and is really into foreign languages and current events. Allison spent this past summer in Turkey on a State Department NSLI-Y scholarship studying Turkish and also interned for two weeks at the Washington, DC studio of ZDF, a major German television station. These two activities, along with her experience as a varsity public forum debater, really capture why she is into public speaking: to make a difference, raise awareness about issues towards which she feels passionately, and to articulate her beliefs in any language. Allison believes that, if everyone has a voice, the potential to fight for good in the world is exponentially stronger: all we have to do is help everybody get to that point, where they feel both comfortable expressing themselves and live in a society that wants to hear them. That's why she joined Speak Up. There's no better place to start than with our youth.
Caroline Watkins
Media Director
Caroline Watkins is a senior at McLean High School in McLean, Virginia. Caroline joined Speak Up because she wanted to give children the confidence to speak their minds on any issue they felt strongly about and to inspire them to become leaders in their own schools and communities. Besides Speak Up, Caroline's hobbies include track, travel soccer, and playing the upright bass in the McLean High School Philharmonic Orchestra. Caroline also started "Humans of McLean", a social media project, in her sophomore year. "Humans of McLean" is a project that, like Speak Up, allows Caroline to encourage others to share their stories with the community and voice their opinions on important issues.
Virginia Sun is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. At Thomas Jefferson, Virginia is the Interpretation Captain of the Forensics Speech team and she co-founded the Student Congress Debate team her sophomore year. She is so lucky to be working with an amazing team on a valuable mission. Speech and Debate is something very close to Virginia's heart, and has made her a more confident, well-informed, and connected individual. Virginia wants to share the impact it's made in her life with others.
Virginia Sun
Finance Director
Eva Femia is a senior at McLean High School in McLean, Virginia. She plays trombone in her high school marching and symphonic bands and is the Assistant Director of Relay for Life. As the Creative Director for Speak Up, Eva is in charge of planning and executing trips to Stanton Elementary School, an underprivileged public school in D.C. Eva is a member of Speak Up because she wants every child, regardless of means, to find their voice and speak confidently.
Eva Femia
Creative Director
Andrew Luo is a senior at McLean High School in McLean, Virginia. In his free time, Andrew enjoys playing, coaching, and watching both football and basketball. Andrew is also very interested in politics; he supported John Foust in his campaign by interning for him in the summer. Andrew also enjoys participating in Debate WACFLs and Model UN conferences. He really enjoys Model UN conferences the most because of the unique perspective you get to simulate as if you were the country’s ambassador in a critical emergency. Andrew is part of Speak Up because he wants to spread the essential skill of public speaking not only to his peers but to the younger generation as well.
Andrew Luo
Web Director
Peter Kim is a senior at McLean High School in McLean, Virginia. Peter is an active member of the McLean High School Debate team where he competes in Public Forum. Peter placed 2nd at the NSDA Virginia District Qualifier in April 2015 and went on to compete at NSDA Nationals, which was held in Dallas, Texas, in June 2015. As the Web Director of Speak Up, Peter hopes to blend his passion of public speaking and computer science and help spread free public speaking education across the U.S.
Peter Kim
Web Director
Filip is a senior at McLean High School in McLean, Virginia. Filip moved to McLean a little over a year ago from his home town in Macedonia. He has been debating since the second half of his freshman year. Filip debated in Karl Popper and World Schools regional and national tournaments back in Macedonia. At McLean, Filip is a part of the McLean Model UN club and the McLean Lincoln Douglas Debate Team. The reason why Filip joined Speak Up was because he saw this as an opportunity to try and motivate debaters to understand the impact and importance of debate as well as practice and train them with them to improve their public speaking, creating arguments, and more.
Filip Boshkovski
Outreach Director