COVID-19 Update: all meetings are virtual on ZOOM
YOUTH LEAD YOUTH
Our philosophy:
United Speakers was founded to provide an enriching environment for youth to develop their public speaking skills. We have realized that the most effective learning environments are ones where youth learn from youth. Our philosophy surrounds this “Youth Lead Youth” framework and it provides a unique opportunity for students to grow and lead. Our organization is completely youth led, with a massive network of 100+ executives across several cities. All of our student leaders are committed to bringing the best possible experience for our members, while maintaining our goal of helping each student find their inner voice.
DIRECTORS
Krystal Li
Director of Operations
Leena Han
Director of International Program
Prentice Hui
Director of Academics
Jessica Shum
Director of Expansion
Leena Han is a grade 10 student at Our Lady Queen of the World Catholic Academy. She has lots of experience in public speaking and leadership as she is currently involved in DECA, Prospective Medical Professionals (PuMP), Youth Political Assembly (YPA) and the Athletic Council. Leena is the VP of International Program and hopes to gain more leadership experience while helping the younger members of USG reach their full public speaking potential.
Krystal Li is a grade 10 student at Our Lady Queen of the World Catholic Academy. She is a member of MUN and has a lot of experience in public speaking and leadership. She was the president at the IHome Public Speaking Club for two years and the president at USG for one term. Krystal became a mentor at USG and is currently taking on greater roles within the organization to grow and develop the club.
Prentice Hui is a grade 10 student at Our Lady Queen of the World Catholic Academy. He is a member of the school’s athletic council and DECA. Prentice has directed many USG related events in his time as Director of Academics. As a successful leader, he hopes to continuously improve the USG expereince. He hopes to gain leadership experience while improving his public speaking skills.
Jessica Shum is a grade 11 student at Holy Trinity School. She participates in many school clubs and committees, such as Law Society, TedEd and Public Relations. She also participates in many school and club sports, such as volleyball, field hockey and fencing. As a strong leader, writer and graphic designer, she successfully leads the expansion team. Jessica looks forward to continuing down the path of leadership.
EXECUTIVES
Operations Team
Steven Wang
Head of Logistics
Steven Wang is a grade 10 student at AY Jackson Secondary School. He was a part of the Student Council throughout middle school as well as a grade rep for grade 9. Through being an executive at the debate club in his school, he has a lot of experience in leadership and public speaking. He has been a part of USG for a couple months, during which, he has taken on the President role for one term and is now taking on other executive roles.
Wendy Li
Toronto President
Wendy Li is a grade 8 student at Lake Wilcox Public School. She has gained lots of experience in public speaking through undertaking leadership roles at USG and helping organize the IHome Public Speaking Club. She has been a student at USG for a full term and is now leading the class meets.
Lucas Morrison
Head of Finance
Lucas Morrison is a Grade 9 student at St. Brother Andre CHS. Lucas helped launch a new Finance club at school which aims to educate students on personal finance and investing. He has also competed and won awards in regional and provincial DECA and University of Waterloo personal finance competitions. Lucas will bring his experience and passion for finance to his new role and is dedicated to furthering the goals of USG.
Azka Siddiqui
Head of Internal Affairs
Azka Siddiqui attends St. Joseph Secondary School in Mississauga, ON, and is in the ninth grade. She enjoys connecting with and assisting youth, both in and out of the classroom. She is an active member of her school community, taking part in activities such as her school’s Student Committee and Debate Club. Outside of school, she volunteers for various non-profit organizations such as Youth Upholding Democracy, Youth Innovation Forum and The Change Ontario. With her past experience in communication and team working, Azka is pleased to become a valuable addition to the USG community by making processes simpler and more effective.
Charlie Zhao
Head of Logistics
Charlie Zhao is an incoming Grade 12 student at Holy Trinity School with a passion for business and law. At his school, Charlie has participated in clubs such as DECA, TedEd and his school’s annual play production as well as sports teams such as Cross Country and Senior Badminton. He is currently the Head of Academics of his school’s TedEd Club and an executive of projectNINE, a non-profit organization dedicated to dissolving stereotypes and stigmatized issues. In addition, Charlie has also gained accolades in DECA as well as awards for his essay writing capabilities. Charlie is thrilled to join the USG community as the Head of Logistics and looks forward to working with everyone at United Speakers!
Andrew Jin
Head of Finance
Andrew Jin is an incoming Grade 10 student at Crescent School with many experiences in community involvement and finance. Andrew has volunteered at many non-profits including Stem of Tomorrow where he teaches eager students on various math subjects and has worked with seniors at multiple care centres to help them during the time of COVID. Andrew is also an avid school leader participating on the house council, school basketball team, and school band where he plays the alto saxophone. He has a passion for math and finance, earning multiple distinctions on the CIMC math contest, and getting accepted into Columbia University’s pre-college intro to finance course. As well, Andrew is a Level 10 RCM violin player earning many podium awards at the Kiwanis Music Festival and is a 1st violin in the Lavender Chamber Ensemble. Andrew is enthusiastic to use his skills at his role at USG and work with everyone!
Expansions Team
Scott Su
Head of Marketing
Scott Su is a grade 12 student from Holy Trinity School. He has a variety of leadership experiences including being the marketing executive for Junior Achievement Canada, and the TEDed club at his school. Additionally, Scott also participates in many clubs and sports in and out side school including DECA, Model UN, swimming, and badminton. Scott is hoping to used his passion and experience in public speaking and marketing to lead USG into the best version it could possibly be.
Laurel Ruan
Head of Publicity
Laurel Ruan is a grade 12 student at Holy Trinity School. She involves herself in the school community by participating in sports teams and clubs. Laurel has been a member of Public Relations, Fashion Forward, Social Committee, Art Council and the Environmental Club. She plays basketball, tennis and has been a competitive dancer for 5 years. With her passions in art and design, Laurel is taking on the role of Head of Publicity. She is looking forward to gaining leadership experience and being actively involved in furthering USG’s impact.
Makena Luk
Head of Promotions
Makena Luk is an incoming grade 11 student at Our Lady Queen of the World Catholic Academy. She was a part of the Student Council and played varsity basketball as a junior during her Grade 9 year. Outside of school, she was an avid basketball coach and counsellor for youth camps and sports teams. Using the leadership and collaboration skills that she developed there, she is eager to apply them towards amplifying young voices in the community. Makena is beyond excited to market this incredible organization and work with the supportive team here at USG!
Angela Jin
Head of Graphic Design
Angela Jin is a Grade 11 student at Holy Trinity School, with a passion for graphic design and music. At school, Angela has participated in many clubs including public relations and the music council, while also being a member of the executive teams for the Model UN and TEDEd club. She has also joined multiple sports teams at her school such as the basketball and badminton teams. Outside of school, Angela is an ARCT level piano player and a part of the team at projectNINE, a non-profit that strives to challenge the stigma of mental health. Angela is really excited to join the USG community as an executive, and work together with others to help youth improve their public speaking skills!
Afua Siaw
Head of Public Relations
Afua is a rising senior in high school from New York City! She wants to be a child psychologist when she grows up due to her love of children, mental health, and medicine! Some of her hobbies are social justice issues, photography, creative writing, and volunteering!
Camille Zhou
Head of Public Relations
Camille is a CEGEP student in Montreal, Quebec, and is currently enrolled in the program of Arts & Sciences. She’s a public speaking enthusiast, which is shown through her involvement as an executive of the MariMUN and TEDxMarianopolisCollege clubs at her school. Aside from that, Camille loves spending her free time volunteering, journaling, reading, writing, or taking photos. You’ll also often catch her having an existential crisis or pulling her hair out because of calculus. All in all, she can’t wait to work as Head of Public Relations with USG!
Grace Abraham
Head of Public Relations
Grace Abraham is a 1st-year York-Schulich School of Business student, BBA Future Graduate 2025. Grace is passionate about public speaking and is considered a very outgoing and creative person. Throughout the years she has worked towards relationship-building with students and her peers to build a unified voice within the community. Grace is a self-starter and has put her entrepreneurial spirit into play by running small business ventures of baking and woodworking. With her keen interest in business and project management, she is a detailed oriented person that reaches attainable goals and tight deadlines to work well for any workgroup she is on. Grace is excited to work as the Head of Public Relations for USG and wants everyone's ideas to become a reality.
Jade Paraschiv
Head of Media
Jade Paraschiv is a grade 11 student in the AP French Immersion program at Our Lady Queen of the World Catholic Academy. At her school, she strives to involve herself in various clubs and teams, and has been apart of the girls volleyball team, debate club and art club. School aside, Jade pursues photography through carrying her camera with her everywhere, takes acting classes, volunteers for children’s art classes, practices oil painting, tutors math and english for elementary students, and is working towards becoming a swimming instructor. She adores public speaking, and understands its importance to establish connections, inspire improvement and influence minds. Thus, she is thrilled to take on the role of Head of Media at USG, and utilize her skills in video editing, graphic design, visual arts, writing, public speaking, and other media works!
Academics Team
Bowen Lin
Head of Curriculum
Bowen Lin is a grade 11 student at St.Robert Catholic High School. He participates actively in school through the high school swim team and being a grade representative of the Chaplaincy Council. He has lots of experience in leading through being the Vice President of Information Technology in last year’s Junior Achievement Company Program, and through actively participating in USG and hopes to continue on his venture in leading and teaching.
Lianna Xue
Head of Curriculum
Lianna Xue is a grade 11 student at St.Robert Catholic High School. She has a lot of experience in public speaking as she is the co-founder of her school's public speaking club, SpeakYourMind. Outside of school, she enjoys teaching math and english to students here and in China. She hopes to use her experience in public speaking and leadership skills to lead USG. Ultimately, she hopes to impact more younger members of the community
Emma Luk
Mentor
Emma Luk is a grade 11 student at Oakville Trafalgar High School. At this school she has participated in many clubs, as well as extracurriculars such as ballet, piano, trombone, Model UN, debate club and theater (although she would have to say that MUN is her favourite). She also has tutored students in many subjects such as math, english, and science! Emma always enjoys speaking her opinions and collaborating with others and decided that she wants to share how amazing public speaking could be to other people. Needless to say she is very excited to work with so many amazing individuals as a mentor at USG!
Samantha Kuan
Head of Club Engagement
Samantha Kwan is a 9th grade student at Streetsville Secondary School in Mississauga. There, she is a part of the announcements team as well as club founder and president of the podcast club. Samantha has used these experiences to further her prowess in public speaking and leadership, and she’s ecstatic to put these skills to use as USG’s new Head of Club Engagement and work with the United Speakers community.
.png)
Angelina Zhou
Mentor
Angelina is a 12th grade student at St Robert Catholic High School in Thornhill, Ontario. She has experience with DECA, MUN, and debate. Outside of school, she is a part of L.I.G.H.T. 2.0, where she has the opportunity to present to members of various school boards and the Richmond Hill city council on topics like racial justice and indigenous issues. She is also on the executive team of Neurogram, a youth-led organization focusing on neuroscience and psychology, in which she organizes and runs events. She looks forward to working with the USG community this year.
Song Ting Shi
Mentor
Song Ting is 12th grade IB Student at St. Robert Catholic High School. She has had experience in DECA, HOSA, and Debate. He is also the Newcomers Working Lead at the Toronto Youth Cabinet, the official advisory body of the Toronto City Council. He is also the co-founder and frequent host at the Talking Table Podcast. He enjoys interacting with new people and discussing a variety of topics with his friends on the podcast. He is also a private english tutor at Laura’s English Studios. Song Ting Shi looks forward to meeting new people and making more friends in the coming year with the USG Community.
Oscar Jiang
Mentor
As an aspiring rising sophomore at Pickering College located in Newmarket, Ontario, Oscar dreams of creating a positive impact on other people’s lives. He is passionate in a variety of things ranging from public speaking, music, collecting things, investing, or even just writing and video editing. He has been inspired by other people and recently gave a TEDxYouth talk at his school and is one of the two chairs for the TEDxYouth@PickeringCollege for the 2021-2022 school year. After attending a multitude of tournaments for debate, he wishes to be able to directly impact the lives of students by spreading knowledge in what he has previously learned to make our society connect better interpersonally, whether one is an introvert or an extrovert. Oscar is both stoked and proud to be a part of the USG community as a mentor and is looking forward to cultivating the community by trying to the best of his ability to fulfill USG’s mission.
Raymond Li
Mentor
.jpeg)
Raymond Li is a grade 11 student attending White Oaks Secondary School. At this school he has participated in three major clubs for the past three years (Debate, DECA, Computer Science). Most notably, he is a current debate executive whose role is to support new students in learning debate concepts while also organizing resources and leading in-house debate tournaments. Throughout the year he has competed in many tournaments such as the ones hosted by Waterloo and Western. Outside of School he is employed by Spirit of Math as an assistant teacher whose job is to tutor students in all grades with math. Here he learned valuable skills such as how to effectively teach someone a concept in a supportive and meaningful way. Raymond has decided to use his passion for teaching and public speaking to become a USG mentor
International Programs Team
Fiona Shen
IP Academics Officer
Fiona Shen is a grade 9 student at Havergal College. She has had lots of public speaking experiences involving debate and MUN. Some of her achievements in MUN include best delegate in the 2021 Harvard MUN conference and Outstanding delegate at Oxford MUN 2020. Some debate awards include awards from Georgetown University, Harvard University, and Stanford University. She is the founder of her school’s public speaking club and was part of a debate organization that has hosted debate rounds and debate tournaments. Outside of school, she enjoys playing ice hockey. She hopes to channel her passion into a source of motivation that can help other members of the community to find their voice.
Emma Chi
IP Academics Officer
Emma Chi is a rising junior at Sycamore Highschool, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. She takes pleasure in coaching, both in school and out of school. At school, she teaches debate formats and debate tips, while taking club members to competitions. Outside of school, she coaches for Public Forum classes at Debate Go and also hosts competitions. She has had previous experiences in all forms of public speaking, including DECA, MUN, Mock trial, impromptu speaking, extemporaneous speaking, and most importantly debate.
Renee Wen
IP Operations Officer
Renee Wen is a rising sophomore student attending St. Robert Catholic High School. At her school, she has participated in a variety of clubs and councils such as DECA, debate, social justice council, and her school’s newspaper. She has used her experience to compete in DECA regionals and provincials and won awards for both. As well, she placed 5th overall in a Western University British Parliamentary Tournament. Using her skills and years of thorough experience in public speaking, Renee is confident and willing to take on new challenges, including the role of IP Operations Officer.
Jacob Pallas
IP Content Officer
Jacob Pallas is a rising sophomore student currently attending Holy Trinity School in Richmond Hill. At his school, Jacob has been a proficient member of the Model United Nations club, with 3 years of experience, attending seven conferences, organizing a Joint Committee Crisis for HTSMUN II, and being chosen for an executive position in the club. Furthermore, with other leadership and public speaking experience in the form of the robotics team leader and DECA membership, he can’t wait to benefit the club as the IP Content Officer!
Carin Gotru
IP Content Officer
Carin Gotru is a graduating senior currently taking a gap year aiming to go into a career in psychiatry. She is passionate about activism and bringing STEM into the mainstream, founding her own magazine making STEM more accessible to young adults. She is a researcher and has collaborated with different respected academic institutions (including Oxford University) while having acted as a public health policy advisor last year. Having experience in managing and producing content for publication, Carin cannot wait to get started as an IP Content Officer for USG!
Wendi Wang
IP Outreach Officer
Wendi Wang is a rising senior at Richmond Hill High school. At her school, she has participated in multiple clubs such as DECA and GirlUp RHHS. Outside school, she volunteers for multiple organizations such as Magnify Wellness, Cards4Kindness and the Asian North American Youth Association. With her past experience in outreach, Wendi is excited to become a part of the USG community by assuming the role of the IP Outreach Officer.
Mulin Yan
IP Expansions Officer
Mulin Yan is a grade 12 student at St. Robert Catholic High School. He is an active reporter for his school’s newspaper club, The Axiom and a group leader at their public speaking club, SpeakYourMind. Outside of school, Mulin has been an executive and Vice President of Outreach for Markham FBLA, a branch for one of the world’s most well known business organizations, and he has also been a contributor for the CICS Immigrant Youth Centre. He hopes to be a significant asset for USG’s goal of expanding across the globe.
Kevin Zhou
IP Content Officer
Kevin Zhou is a Grade 12 IB student at St. Robert Catholic High School. Inside of his school, Kevin has taken part in various clubs and councils, such as the French Club, Math Club and Student Athletic Council. He also acted as a Student Delegate and speaker of the IB Orientation of his school. In his spare time, he has a strong passion for graphic design, as well as drawing and calligraphy. Kevin has chosen to embrace his passion for graphic design and content creation to take on the responsibility of the International Program Content Officer and is looking forward to working with everyone at USG!
Pallas Shen
IP Journalist
Pallas Shen is a Grade 8 student attending P.A.C.E in Richmond Hill, Ontario. She was a recipient of multiple awards including Top Student, Excellence in Junior Writing Compositions, Excellence in Junior Math, and Silver at the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition. Most recently, Pallas won the national championship for the FBLA Canadian Junior Leadership Experience in 2021. She has a lot of experience in public speaking, including debate, MUN, Mock Trial, and serving as master of ceremonies at charity events. Pallas is passionate about writing, pursuing her interest by writing articles on Medium, as well as becoming an editor/writer for Reach for the Stars and student x students. She is thrilled to join the USG community as an IP Journalist and looks forward to working with everyone!
Kristen Chak
IP Journalist
Kristen Chak is a grade 11 student at Our Lady Queen of the World Catholic Academy where she is passionate about bettering her school community. During her Grade 9 year, Kristen was a part of the School Council and Best Buddies - a program dedicated to creating friendships with students with disabilities. Outside of school Kristen is involved in extracurriculars including training as a competitive figure skater. She has worked with younger skaters as a camp counselor and assistant coach, volunteered at senior homes, and joined a campaign associated with the Canadian Cancer Society. With her passion for writing, Kristen is eager to utilize her skills and begin working with the USG community as a journalist who writes about USG’s ideals and gains leadership experience while helping youth develop public speaking skills.
Christina Sarosh
IP Journalist
Christina Sarosh is a Grade 11 student at FAIPS DPS,Kuwait. At her school, she works as the assistant editor for her school magazine,she has also actively participated in various clubs and has founded an environmental club in grade 9 that has helped recycle over thousands of plastic bottles at her school. She is also a commendation winner of the International Student Journalism Competition hosted by Jagran Lakecity University in India.She has a lot of passion for writing and she hopes to use her experience and skills to help the USG community to grow as an IP Journalist.