Our Leadership Team

Meet the dedicated young leaders who are making a difference through Shaping Future Leaders. Our team brings diverse experiences and a shared passion for empowering youth.

Luke Zhang

President of SFL

Luke Zhang is a British Parliamentary, World Schools and Asian Parliamentary debater who has been debating for over 3 years. As a speaker, he has been a finalist in the Western High Schools Championship, a quarterfinalist in the Paris World Schools International Championship, a finalist in the McGill High School Championship and a finalist in the UofT Hart House High Schools Tournament. In addition, he was the 11th Novice Speaker at Harvard World Schools and 10th Novice Speaker at the Edinburgh University Open. Luke has an avid passion to teach others and share his experiences as a debater, in helping others to improve to reach their full potential. In his free time, he enjoys investing himself in journalism, playing the clarinet and reading books. He has an avid passion in both politics, international relations and economics!

Jesse Yu

Math Club Leader

Hey, I'm Jesse. I am a sophomore at Millburn High school, and I am a dedicated debater in my speech and debate team. I've made elimination rounds at five tournaments this year, and I am qualified to the States tournament in New Jersey. Aside from debate, I am also an avid writer, notably receiving a Gold Key from Scholastic Awards (top ~7% in the At-Large East region). Furthermore, I am equally as passionate about math; I qualified for the American Invitation Mathematical Exam (~7% of around 150,000 test takers) twice, and received a Silver Medal for the USA Mathematical Talent Search (top ~12.5%). Beyond academics, I am a competitive swimmer and have been playing the alto saxophone for four years.

Anna Gong

Business Club Leader

Hi I'm Anna currently in 9th grade, I'm the leader of the business club in SFL. Something about myself, I have a wide variety of interests; dancing, drawing, cello, debate (pf+bp), fashion design, art, badminton, entrepreneurship, etc. I also love socializing and meeting new friends! I am interested in a variety of enterprising and innovative contests and is looking forward to collaborate with different people.

Karl Gong

PF Debate Club Leader

I'm Karl, a 9th-grader currently studying in Canada. For the past three years, I've been on an incredible journey in the world of Public forum debate. I've been deeply engaged in PF debating for some time now, and the experience has been nothing short of extraordinary. The online nature of PF means that I can compete against debaters from all corners of the globe. This global reach allows me to participate in renowned, internationally-recognized tournaments such as those hosted by Harvard, Stanford, and the Tournament of Champions (TOC). These tournaments attract some of the brightest minds in the world of debate.

Nicholas Wei

IT Head

Nicholas is an 8th grader. He lives in Buffalo, New York. He has helped children with autism for over 2 years. He enjoys swimming and coding, and has won top 10 in the picoCTF hacking competition. He also likes creating websites and games using Python!

Orange

Autism Program Leader

Hi everyone, my name is Orange. I'm 13 years old, and I'm in Grade 7. I am one of the leaders of the Autism Program. I love playing the violin and have been practicing for 5 years. I enjoy performing at school concerts and competitions. Besides music, I like reading science fiction and playing badminton. My favorite subject is science because it's both challenging and interesting. I'm really happy to join SFL because it's a great opportunity to learn, make friends, and contribute to something meaningful. Let's have a great time together!

Shaoyang Luan

BP Debate Club Leader

Shao is a student at University of Toronto Schools who enjoys debating, playing basketball, badminton and ping pong. He was also fortunate enough to have played AA basketball and able to have been a part of the UTS basketball, badminton and ping pong team. He has broken at many British Parliamentary debate tournaments. Most notably: Grand Finalist at Western Winter 2025 and top junior speaker. Autumnloo and Grand Finalist and Third Junior speaker at Autumnloo 2024, and Quarterfinalist and 7th Junior open at Hart House Winter Open. Additionally, he has won the top public speaker in Toronto and third best in the region. At SFL, he has boosted the confidence of over 100 kids through my public speaking club. Since 2023, he has taught kids with special needs biweekly and have done 1 on 1's with them. He taught many others beginners and intermediate level debate and public speaking and allowed them to develop a new hobby and passion. Furthermore, he was a key component in running SFL's first major debate tournament which was a major success.

Shawn Cui

Future Speakers Club Leader

Shawn is a British Parliamentary and Public Forum debater who has learned debate for over 2 and a half years, having experience in both BP and PF debate. Shawn has won the TOC Asia Junior Debate Tournament and is ranked top 15% in the 2025 Stanford PF Tournament in 348 debater. Shawn has also won two Public Speaking competitions. Shawn has won the Bronze award in the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition in 2024, with over 35,000 participants. Shawn also has extensive experience in teaching debate and public speaking. He has been teaching debate and public speaking classes from March 2023, and has taught more than 100 lessons in SFL, honing his debate, public speaking and leadership skills. Shawn likes to read, and play video games in his free time. He also has a passion for basketball, and he plays rep AA basketball as well.