Welcome

BEGINNER Elementary SPEECH & DEBATE CAMP (SESSION 1)

This camp is perfect for elementary school students who want to develop public speaking skills such as presentation, persuasion and confidence. Through a variety of activities that focus on content structure, speaking with clarity and expressing original ideas, each student will walk away from this camp feeling more comfortable and confident speaking in front of others! Each day is full of fun and engaging activities. This camp is very popular and filled up quickly last summer!

BEGINNER Middle School / High School SPEECH & DEBATE CAMP (SESSION 1)

This speech and debate camp is for incoming 6th-12th graders and up who want to develop public speaking confidence as well as strong presentation and persuasion skills. Students will work towards building solid, logical and effective arguments and use effective techniques for confident public speaking and presentation. Each student will walk away from this camp feeling more comfortable and confident speaking in front of others!

LIMITED PREP CAMP: IMPROMPTU AND SPAR DEBATE (4-day camp)

One of the hardest skills in life is being able to speak with no script or planned speech. Yet, this ability to improvise off the top of one's head is one of the most telling signs of a powerful public speaker. Impromptu speaking and spar debate are great events through which students learn to be comfortable with the unknown and even enjoy coming up with arguments and speeches with just a few minutes of preparation time! Strong presentation/delivery skills are also taught.

INTRO TO STORYTELLING CAMP (4-day camp)Jun 30-Jul 2, 2026

This camp is ideal for students wanting to expand their performance and storytelling abilities. By taking a children’s book, memorizing a 5-minute cutting of it, and pretending to perform the story in front of an imaginary group of 5 year-olds, students learn to build charismatic and engaging speaking skills. These skills will help with with all public speaking moments in their lives as well as lead to a strong foundation in interpretation events in the world of speech and debate.

INTRO TO CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE (“CONGRESS”) CAMP (4-day camp)

Congressional debate is a mock legislative assembly event in which students pretend to be senators on the house floor, debating for and against proposed resolutions and bills. It is a combination of strong presentation skills and critical thinking. According to the National Speech and Debate Association, Congress “promotes leadership and communication skills through rigorous interaction and debate on issues confronting our democracy.”

BEGINNER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SPEECH AND DEBATE CAMP (SESSION 2)

This camp is perfect for elementary school students who want to develop public speaking skills such as presentation, persuasion and confidence. Through a variety of activities that focus on content structure, speaking with clarity and expressing original ideas, each student will walk away from this camp feeling more comfortable and confident speaking in front of others! senators on the house floor, debating for and against proposed resolutions and bills.

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC FORUM (PF) DEBATE CAMP (Session 1)

This introductory debate camp will introduce kids to the building blocks of public forum debate, from fundamental critical thinking skills and logic to argumentation, topic analysis, research skill-building, building cases, presentation, and more. Covering topics relating to socioeconomic, political and other matters affecting our world, public forum debate is a fascinating, intensive form of partnered (2-person) debate in which students not only learn about the world around them.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP

This leadership camp helps younger students discover, tap into, and build their unique styles of leadership. Students learn through active and unique drills that go over every aspect of leadership. Discussions with Coach Mike will be held and are invaluable for deeper levels of critical thinking and confidence-building. Students will be encouraged to use their newfound leadership skills to make a difference in their schools, communities and homes.

INTRODUCTION TO DEBATE CAMP

This introductory debate camp will introduce kids to the building blocks of argumentation, logic, reasoning and the fundamental concept of claim-warrant-impact. Several forms of debate such as big questions debate and public forum debate will be introduced. Research skill-building, case building will be introduced as well, along with presentation skills. The camp will culminate in a mini-tournament and class awards ceremony.

HUMOROUS INTERPRETATION CAMP

Intended for students with performance experience, this camp introduces participants to one of the most dynamic and creative events in speech and debate competition: humorous interpretation (“HI”). Students will explore the foundations of comedy, including timing, subverting expectations, impressions, and character work, while learning the storytelling principles that make performances gripping. Campers will watch and analyze middle school and high school HI performances and practice writing

INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATIVE SPEAKING CAMP

Intended for students with performance experience, this camp introduces participants to one of the most dynamic and creative events in speech and debate competition: humorous interpretation (“HI”). Students will explore the foundations of comedy, including timing, subverting expectations, impressions, and character work, while learning the storytelling principles that make performances gripping.

LEADERSHIP CAMP (3-Day Camp)

This short but powerful leadership camp helps middle school and high school students discover, tap into, and build their unique styles of leadership. Students learn through active and unique drills that go over every aspect of leadership. Discussions with Coach Mike will be held and are invaluable for deeper levels of critical thinking and confidence-building. Students will be encouraged to use their newfound leadership skills to make a difference in their schools, communities and homes.

ADVANCED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SPEECH AND DEBATE CAMP

This camp is for elementary school students who are already familiar with speech and debate, whether in the classroom or from tournament participation. The focus of this camp will be on fine-tuning presentation skills as well as broadening tools of communication. With this camp, students will also be able to explore the wide variety of events that are offered at competitions, giving campers an advantage as they start competing in the 2025-2026 speech and debate tournament season.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CAMP

This fun and highly-interactive camp allows students to use their imagination via role-playing (creating and interacting with unique characters) and navigating actions, reactions and consequences in their built world as they navigate Dungeons & Dragons. This camp also builds critical thinking, strategy skills, thinking-in-the-moment, creativity and an awareness of ethics and choice consequence, as well as the sheer luck of the dice throw!

VARSITY INFORMATIVE CAMP (pre-approval req and limited to 6 students max

This camp is only for experienced competitors in Informative Speaking who are looking for a headstart in building a winning and competitive speech for the 2026-2027 season. Led by head coach Jung Park and using her unique, holistic and secret techniques for getting students quickly to award-winning and bid-earning levels of performance and content-building, this camp is intensive, fun, incredibly effective and designed to get students empowered for the upcoming season.

INTRODUCTION TO SPEECH EVENTS CAMP

This speech and debate camp is for students who want to build their public speaking confidence as well as their presentation skills. Students will learn how to use effective techniques for confident public speaking and presentation. Through a variety of activities that focus on content structure, speaking with clarity and expressing original ideas, each student will walk away from this camp feeling more comfortable and confident speaking in front of others!

INTRODUCTION TO BIG QUESTIONS DEBATE CAMP

According to the National Speech and Debate Association, Big Questions (BQ) Debate is “a form of debate designed to open students’ minds and encourage them to engage in life discussion that may not align with their previously held beliefs. Whether or not students change their opinion, the rich experience of this debate event will advance their knowledge, comfort, and interest in learning more about the subject matter based on the intersection of science and philosophy.”

This wonderful form of debate allows students to engage in critical thinking, reasoning and practice logic-building as they also grapple with deep questions about humanity and existence itself. Research and writing skills are emphasized as students build affirmative and negation cases on a topic such as the 2024-2025 topic, “Creativity is a more powerful force than intelligence.”

BEGINNER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SPEECH AND DEBATE CAMP (SESSION 3)

This camp is perfect for elementary school students who want to develop public speaking skills such as presentation, persuasion and confidence. Through a variety of activities that focus on content structure, speaking with clarity and expressing original ideas, each student will walk away from this camp feeling more comfortable and confident speaking in front of others! Each day is full of fun and engaging activities. This camp is very popular and filled up quickly last summer!

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC FORUM (PF) DEBATE CAMP (Session 2)

This introductory debate camp will introduce kids to the building blocks of public forum debate, from fundamental critical thinking skills and logic to argumentation, topic analysis, research skill-building, building cases, presentation, and more. Covering topics relating to socioeconomic, political and other matters affecting our world, public forum debate is a fascinating, intensive form of partnered (2-person) debate in which students not only learn about the world around them,

they also learn to write and research persuasive arguments and demonstrate strong speaker skills. The camp will culminate in a mini-tournament and class awards ceremony.

INTRODUCTION TO LINCOLN DOUGLAS (LD) DEBATE CAMP

This introductory debate camp will introduce kids to the building blocks of traditional Lincoln Douglas debate, a fascinating form of debate focused on values-based debate and involving one competitor debating against another individual competitor. This camp will build upon students’ knowledge of debate and fine-tune their critical thinking skills, logic, argumentation, topic analysis, research skill-building, building cases, presentation, and more--all as they relate to LD. This introductory

Philosophies, framework, argument construction as they relate to LD will be taught. The main focus will be traditional LD, but progressive approaches will be touched upon. Prior experience in any form of debate is highly recommended. The camp will culminate in a mini-tournament and awards ceremony.