Palo Alto High School’s Speech and Debate Team is welcoming two new speech coaches following the departure of two debate coaches.

Stanford University students Mia Diawara and Christina Gilbert will join the coaching staff due to an increase in the Speech Team’s size, according to speech and debate director Jennie Savage.

“They [the Speech Team] have been really small and really effective for two and half years now and they’re starting to get attention,” Savage said. “It’s just going to get bigger from there.”

According to Savage, Diawara and Gilbert offer different skills to assist the Speech Team.

“They bring a broad range of experience and expertise and they’re very different from each other,” Savage said. “Mia specializes in the interpretive events and Christina specializes in the rest of the speech events. … They bring different perspectives and different areas of expertise, they bring a whole lot of energy to the team they’re really into coaching.”

Alongside current speech coaches Jay Musen and Brandon Silber, Diawara and Gilbert will begin coaching next year. Gilbert will start in the fall whereas Diawara will join in January