Sonali Mehta

“The whole point of what I do in speech and debate is to tell stories for people who can’t tell their own stories, people who can’t speak for themselves. It makes me feel like I’m doing something that matters. Last year, after going to the state tournament, I was a semifinalist so I was portraying a woman with anorexia and after the round, there was a boy who came up to me and told me that his sister had anorexia and that he didn’t understand what she was going through and why she couldn’t just eat. He told me that after hearing my performance, he now understood, and that my performance really impacted him in a way that he could understand what his sister is going through. And ultimately, I didn’t make finals but it didn’t matter because something like that was enough.”