nish selvalingham

nish@manzanitaschool.org

Nishanth ("Nish") acts as Manzanita’s Middle School Debate Specialist teacher. As Nish tells it, he signed up for debate in middle school because he had a crush on a girl on the team and thought it would be a good opportunity to talk to her. He fell in love with debating instead, and spent countless weekends over the next few years losing debate rounds at tournaments. Eventually, he got better and somehow found his way onto the national team in high school. He debated at the World Schools Debating Championship representing Malaysia in 2014, where he finished as Overall Best Speaker in the 'English as Second Language' Category, and again in 2015 where he finished as Quarterfinalist. In college, he vowed never to debate again. However, debate found him anyway and the next thing he knew he was debating for UCLA and eventually coaching college debate. He became disillusioned with the overly competitive nature of varsity debating and left his coaching position at UCLA to start a middle school debating program at St Martin of Tours Catholic School, where he has worked for the past three years. He discovered that teaching middle/high school was his thing and has been doing it ever since! He currently lives in Westwood where he teaches yoga and hosts weekly meditation gatherings in his apartment with his wife, Hannah. Nish (which rhymes with "fish") is also an accomplished guitarist.