Zoe Soderquist attended Arizona College Preparatory - Erie High School and graduated this past May. She is now double majoring in English and Communications on a merit scholarship at Arizona State University. This past year, Zoe was a strong competitor on the speech and debate team at her school, acting as a team captain, participating in the leadership council, and ultimately obtaining state champion in her debate event. She qualified to nationals for the third year, and attended nationals in June, taking place in Louisville, Kentucky. She did all this whilst working part-time, managing other extracurricular clubs she helped to head, and volunteering with her church and girl scouts.

   Awards and Achievements: 

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• National qualifier 3 years in Speech and Debate

• Top 60 nationwide placement in 2020 Speech and Debate Nationals

• Top 30 ranking in Speech and Debate nationwide 

• AZ State Champion in Lincoln Douglas Debate

• Top LD Debater in Arizona

• Recipient of the Prestigious Academic All-American Award for Speech and Debate granted to students with 750 merit points and 3.75 gpa for 3 years.

• AP Scholar with Distinction- Granted to students who receive an average score of 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams.

• Achieved Honor Roll all 4 years of high school with a 4.4 GPA

Outside of school, Zoe loves working, and has worked at many retail stores, with her favorite position being cashier, where she is best able to interact with customers. She also likes having fun though, and loves theme parks (traveling to Disneyland 25 times), writing, playing games with friends, family, and her two pet cats, art projects like crocheting, and volunteering.

Zoe believes that the key to accomplishing anything in life is motivation, and hopes to motivate her students to yearn for learning as much as she does. While public speaking might come naturally for some, and be a struggle for others, what matters most is your preparation and motivation to put in the time. Doing both of those things can lead anyone to become a successful speaker, debater, or writer.