Amazing Staff!

Camp Instructors

Founder and President: Griffith William Vertican Esq.
Coach Griffith is the director of the National Institute for Homeschool Debate (with an average of 150 participants for a week-long camp for over 10 years NIHD is the largest in the nation), he is also a licensed attorney and one of the most successful debate coaches in America. He himself won our nation's largest collegiate debate tournament the NPDA in 2007. Students who attended his camps have won every division of debate and the overall tournament champion award. Students he personally coached took 1st place in TP Debate (Jeffrey Pistor) and 1st, 2nd, and 6th place in LD Debate at 2018 NITOC Championships. He's coached 10 different national champions in all three forms of debate, and the 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022 LD national champions were all his students.

Isaiah McPeak
has consulted at every level from solo startup to Fortune 10 executives, built businesses from scratch, and designed multiple products. In his spare time, he likes to play trumpet and go mountain biking. Isaiah lives in Texas with his wife and three children, who are the light of his life.

Eric Garcia
has been the policy coach for Veritas, CA since late 2006. As a college coach, he also qualified multiple teams to the NPTE for both Irvine Valley College and Biola University. He has 35 years of high school and college competition and coaching experience.

Gabe Waddell Esq.

Once a homeschool debater (way back in the dark ages), Gabe Waddell is a graduate
of the Oak Brook College of Law, much of which he paid for with speech competition
scholarships.  Gabe currently practices law in Fresno, California, where he was one of
the founding partners of the firm Fear Waddell, PC.  Gabe is certified as a specialist in
bankruptcy law and is on the Board of Directors of the California Bankruptcy Forum.
In addition to legal work, Gabe is active in missions and humanitarian work locally and
abroad. Gabe and his wife Katie are associate missionaries with Medical Missions
Outreach, leading teams on short-term missions trips that provide optical clinics and
free glasses to people in need throughout the world. Because every optical clinic is
done in coordination with a local church, every patient that comes through the clinic
hears the gospel in their own heart language. Gabe is also on the Board of Directors
of Remember, an organization devoted to caring for the widows and orphans of
Christian martyrs across the globe.
Closer to home in California’s Central Valley, Gabe currently serves on the Board of
Directors for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Central Valley. When he is
not at the office or traveling, you might find Gabe searching for scenic views to
photograph, reading a wide variety of literature, or cooking for friends.

Lab Leaders/Alumni speakers

Savanna Winchel

Savanna Winchel has extensive experience coaching and competing in speech and debate, and is beyond enthusiastic for the opportunities to share her passion for this activity with students for the ultimate glorification of Christ and His gospel. Savanna currently teaches at Crean Lutheran High School, where in addition to teaching chemistry, is the speech and debate academic team coach as well as the instructor for the Honors Speech and Debate class. Prior to her teaching career, she was the head speech coach for Apollos, a homeschool Stoa club in Irvine. Savanna has also taught and led at various speech and debate camps in the past, including Chicago, IL, Lake Arrowhead, CA, and Irvine, CA. Her passion for teaching is ultimately rooted in both her love for her students and Christ, and her deepest desire is to show her students through the art of public speaking, effective communication, and critical thinking what it means to truly know and be able to defend the gospel of Christ with others as molded in 1 Peter 3:15.

Dylan Jacobs
Dylan Jacobs competed in Stoa for 3 years, and was the National Champion during the 2020 season, finishing first in LD, Persuasive, Extemporaneous and Apologetics. Since graduating he has gone on to compete in college forensics, recently winning the Parliamentary Debate championship at Christian Nationals. His motivation to continue serving in Stoa is to equip students to valiantly defend the faith and grow daily in their personal walk with Christ.

Ethan Blount
has competed in Speech & Debate across the US for five years in which he made it to nationals all five years. He won the national Parliamentary Debate Speaker title in 2017 and in 2018 he won the national title in Extemporaneous Speaking. He won over 100 awards in many other events ranging from Apologetics and Demonstration to Original Oratory and Impromptu – including over 30 First Place awards. In all of his different forms of speaking, he appreciates the power and utility of oratory and understands that it’s true purpose is for the Glorification of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Sara Shipley
competed in Stoa speech and debate for six years, striving for excellence in every speech, every round, and every tournament. By the time she finished her sixth year, she'd been to tournaments in over seven states, learning invaluable lessons and skills. Sara specializes in Team Policy and Parliamentary Debate, as well as the limited prep speech events. She's passionate about using her skills for the advancement of God's kingdom and reinvesting into the community that invested so much into her. She can't wait to contribute to the learning and growth of the awesome students at NIHD!

Ben Arroyave
has enjoyed public speaking since he gave his first impromptu speech as a five-year-old. Competing in Stoa for six years, Ben participated in Lincoln Douglas and Parliamentary Debate, as well as multiple Limited Preparation and Prepared speech events. In the 2021-2022 Season, Ben achieved ten 5-1 or 6-0 records in Lincoln Douglas and five winning records in Parliamentary. He ended the season as the NITOC Lincoln Douglas Debate Champion and the Parliamentary Debate Champion. He also competed internationally in the World Schools Debate Format.

Ben believes that God can use speech and debate to create humble and competent ambassadors to a world that needs to hear His message of forgiveness and righteousness. He hopes to pass on the lessons he has learned to the next generation of speakers so that they may discover and hone their own talents to be more effective tools in the hand of God.

Megan Richardson
competed in Stoa for 5 years. She participated in every Stoa event and qualified for Nationals in all 12 speech events and 2 types of debate. She achieved the Founders Award two years in a row and won tournament champion multiple times. She finished out her Stoa career as 8th overall in the nation in speech and debate rankings and was ranked 3rd in Apologetics (her favorite speech event). Megan is excited to share her experiences in Stoa and to share the joy that Stoa can bring to student's lives. She hopes that God will use her to help others grow in their speaking and debating skills, as well as their relationship with the Lord.

Hudson Winchel
(also known as Bucky!) participated in 11 events throughout his 5 year Stoa journey. Throughout his senior year, he achieved 113 qualifying checkmarks. He has won 25 tournaments in different events, including Apolegtics, Impromptu, Original Oratory, Persuasive, Parliamentary Debate, and Team Policy Debate, and became the 2023 NITOC Parliamentary Speaker champion. He has been awarded Tournament Champion at multiple tournaments and ended the season ranked 3rd in the nation overall. Hudson feels incredibly blessed to have been a part of Stoa, and throughout his speech and debate journey, he has been equipped with skills that he strives to ultimately use for God’s glory. Through coaching, he seeks to equip others to be not only proficient speakers but also honorable ones. And ultimately strives to teach others to develop skills for God's kingdom and Christ's glory.

John Semple
has competed in Stoa for six years and has been involved in the Stoa community since 2011. He remembers cheering for his sisters whenever they got awards and dreaming of competing. From his first year competing in Stoa till his last he learned skills from the ground up. Beginning with Apologetics and Lincoln Douglas only, he eventually added more events to his repertoire. His first hint of success began in the 2020-2021 season when he placed third in Lincoln Douglas debate at Virtual Green. Facing sporadic success from there, John hunkered down and began to invest serious time and energy into Stoa, eventually moving past his inconsistencies.
In his senior year, John expanded his event list to include interps, and found they taught him skills he was lacking. He proceeded to consistently place highly in all 10 of his regular events through his senior year, eventually earning first place titles in Apologetics, Impromptu, Extemporaneous, Original Oratory, Expository, Open Interpretation, Parliamentary, Parliamentary speaker points, Lincoln Douglas, Lincoln Douglas speaker points, and Team Policy. His favorite speech was his Expository with which he won six tournaments. At NITOC 2023, John won the national titles in Lincoln Douglas debate and Apologetics speaking, broke the NITOC record for picket fences with seven, and was awarded the second place Tournament Champion award.
John’s foremost struggle and foremost goal in Stoa has been to constantly press in for God’s wisdom and trust Him with all results. John now coaches all speech and debate events, but specializes in debate, limited prep, and expository. He is excited to see where God leads him through the rest of his life.

NIHD Staff

Administrator & Tournament Director: Michelle Richardson

Administrator: Sara Shipley

Worship Leader: Ginger Vertican Carrier

Director of Marketing & Communications: Charis Baker

STAY TUNED: ADDITIONAL GUEST SPEAKERS & STAFF COMING SOON!

*If you are interested in being on the NIHD staff team please contact nihdcamp@gmail.com