Voice
Competitive speech turned practice into confidence. Leading and mentoring showed me how communication changes what people believe they can do.
Speech & Debate · MentorshipCivic communicator · Founder · Researcher
Finding my voice.
Building ideas into action.
I’m Nidhi Maddi, a student, speaker, builder, and civic leader. Through entrepreneurship, research, technology, and public engagement, I explore how ideas become organizations and how those organizations can create meaningful impact.
Business
Law
Public voice
Voice is personal. Power is structural.
My central question01 My lens
What I’m learning
through the work.
Speech taught me to claim a voice. My work since then has pushed me toward a harder question: how do organizations, markets, laws, and technologies decide who gets access, protection, and influence?
Access
Teaching, tutoring, voter registration, and language-access work revealed that participation depends on more than motivation—it depends on systems.
Education · Voting · LanguageAccountability
Building technology and studying media made ethics concrete: useful tools still require consent, privacy, transparency, and responsible incentives.
AI · Media · Institutional ethicsAcademic direction
Business,
Technology &
Public Impact
I’m interested in the intersection of public policy, government, technology, and economics—especially how institutions design rules, respond to incentives, and use emerging technologies to shape opportunity and civic participation.
My work in speech and debate, voter engagement, media literacy, civic technology, and nonprofit leadership has shown me that public problems rarely belong to just one discipline. I want to study how policy and markets can encourage innovation while ensuring that institutions remain ethical, inclusive, and accountable.
The question I’m carrying forwardHow can policy, technology, and economic incentives work together to expand opportunity while protecting the public interest?
02 Selected work
01 / Voice & leadership
From finding my voice
to building rooms for others.
Speech, Debate & VoiceToLead
I lead a 65-member speech and debate team, mentor younger competitors, and compete nationally. I founded VoiceToLead—a fiscally sponsored nonprofit project—to translate those skills into free, practical speaking education for younger students.
- Mentored 20 underclassmen in speech construction and delivery
- Invested 100+ hours building and delivering programming
- Served approximately 65 students across four schools
- Built an AI coach with privacy and consent as design responsibilities
02 / Civic agency
Participation starts
before the ballot.
New Voters, LWV & civic education
My civic work focuses on the barriers between formal rights and real participation: registration, first-time voter knowledge, language, media literacy, and confidence navigating institutions.
- Helped register 200 eligible voters through a three-district drive
- Supported a school drive reaching 75% of eligible seniors
- Selected as one of 12 students for the New Voters Press Network
- Created naturalization and first-time voter education
03 / Markets & ideas
Studying what
captures attention.
The Attention Economy
Through conversations with 14 experts, including economics professors and small-business owners, I examined how trends move through markets, why people follow them, and how attention becomes economic and political power.
The project shifted my interest from persuasion alone to the incentives behind persuasion—and the responsibilities of those who profit from it.
03 Academic & extracurricular snapshot
Beyond the classroom.
Across disciplines and communities.
A snapshot of the experiences that have shaped my interests—from competitive speech and civic engagement to research, education, technology, and the arts.
Top 1.7%Class rank
1530SAT
21 APsCompleted or planned
7 × 5Junior-year AP exams
Speech & Debate
Two-time NSDA Nationals qualifier, TFA State semifinalist in Original Oratory, and ranked overall second in Texas for Informative Speaking.
Civic Participation
Led multi-district voter-registration efforts, represented my school in Collin County, and created civic education for first-time voters.
Ideas & Media
Interviewed 14 experts, economics professors and small-business owners about trends, psychology, markets, and the role attention plays in political campaigns.
Education Access
Built speaking programs for younger students and tutored 96 learners from 12 countries in math and reading—at no cost.
Research
Selected for a 20-student Smithsonian Climate Action cohort and completed a 14-week research capstone, producing a documentary on how urban planning and public policy shape climate resilience and disaster response.
Arts
Golden Classical Music Awards First Prize recipient and selected as solo performer at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
04 Selected recognition
SpeechTFA State Semifinalist · 2× NSDA Nationals Qualifier · 2× NIETOC Qualifier · TOC Qualifier
ScholarshipNSDA Academic All-American · National Merit Semifinalist
ServicePresident’s Volunteer Service Award from iStartValley
MusicGolden Classical Music Awards, First Prize · Trinity Level 7
Let’s connect
Interested in voice,
institutions, or impact?
I’m always interested in thoughtful conversations across business, law, civic life, education, and technology.
Start a conversation