Angela Chen
co-director and speaker
Angela Chen is a rising senior at Foothill High School. She was the treasurer of Literature Club and the Director of Training for her DECA chapter during the 19/20 school year. She is one of the co-founders and editors of the Lighthouse as well as an experienced English tutor. Not only has she won multiple DECA awards, but she is also skilled at mentoring people, whether it’s writing or competition. She loves cats, reading, and volunteering!
Trisha Khattar
co-director and speaker
Trisha Khattar is a writer, journalist, and rising senior at Amador Valley High School. She is enamored with the complexities of writing (in any form) and its power to sway mindsets, illuminate injustice and, ultimately, evoke meaningful and essential change. She is a three-time winner of the Alameda County Mock Trial Court Journalist competition and an Amador Valley Editor-in-Chief, as well as writing manager at Capability Experiment. She is a co-founder and editor of the inaugural Amador-Foothill Literary Magazine and her work will be printed in a COVID-19 anthology published by Writopia Labs. She loves screenwriting, for which her work has been recognized by Scholastic Writing Awards, and prose. Trisha also adores personalized playlists and creating podcasts!
Vivien Song
co-director and speaker
Vivien Song is a rising senior at Amador Valley High School. A 2020 National YoungArts Finalist in Poetry and an Adroit Journal summer mentee, she has been further recognized by the Poetry Society of the UK, the National Poetry Quarterly, and Hollins University. Her work appears in AAWW: The Margins, L'Éphémère Review, and Vagabond City Lit, among others. She serves as the poetry editor for EX/POST Magazine and Bitter Melon Magazine, as well as a poetry reader for COUNTERCLOCK Journal. Vivien likes long, aimless walks and overnight oats.
Arushi Avachat
speaker
Arushi Avachat is a writer and organizer from Pleasanton, California. She is a three-time Scholastic Writing Awards National Medalist and a two-time National YoungArts Winner in Writing. Her first book, “When Love Dies,” released on Amazon in April 2019. Additionally, Arushi is the co-founder and co-president of Students for Social Change, Vice-Chair of the Pleasanton City Youth Commission, and a graduate of the District Attorney’s Justice Academy. For her work in organizing and government, Arushi was named a California Delegate to the 2020 United States Senate Youth Program. Arushi loves dark chocolate, Jane Austen novels, and getting emotionally invested in each season of the Bachelor.
Claire McNerney
speaker
Claire McNerney is a student at Foothill high school. She loves reading, writing, acting, and improv, which she performs with Creatures of Impulse. Her writing has been published in Canvas Literary Journal.
Shirley Wang
speaker
Shirley Wang is a writer and artist living in Northern California. She is eighteen years old and a graduated high school senior. She was a 2019 YoungArts winner in Short Story. Her heart thrums for breakfast food, Mitski, turtlenecks, the texture of gouache. Most of all, she believes in being unabashed in learning, creating, and caring. Also, she really does love writing about trees.
Kanchan Naik
speaker
Kanchan Naik is a rising senior at Quarry Lane School in Dublin, California. This year, she was appointed as the Teen Poet Laureate of Pleasanton, and uses her platform to spread a love for the literary arts. Aside from creative writing, she is also very passionate about journalism. Kanchan is the Youth Editor of India Currents and the Editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, The Roar.