​Summer Schedule:

CAMP OPTIONS (DESCRIPTIONS BELOW):

• BEGINNER:
  • Beginner Speech & Debate; 
  • ​Beginner Speech Only
  • Beginner New Topic Prep Session 
• EXPERIENCED:
  • Experienced Speech & Debate;
  • ​Advanced LD New Topic Prep Session
• ELEMENTARY:
  • Elementary Speech & Debate Level 1;
  • Elementary Speech & Debate Level 2; 
  • Elementary Speech Only
    ​

DATES (ALL ONLINE):

• June 15th to June 19th
  • Beginner Speech and Debate: 9am to 12pm [$295]

   

• June 29th to July 3rd ​
  • Beginner Speech and Debate: 9am to 12pm [$295]
  • Experienced Speech and Debate: 1pm to 4pm [$295]
  • Elementary Speech and Debate Level II: 9am to 12pm [$295]

 

• July 6th to July 10th​
  • ​Elementary Speech and Debate: 9am to 12pm [$295]

 

• July 13th to July 17th​
  • Beginner Speech and Debate: 9am to 12pm [$295]
  • Elementary Speech and Debate: 9am to 12pm [$295]

 

• July 20th to July 24th​
  • Experienced Speech and Debate: 1pm to 4pm [$295]

 

• July 27th to July 31st​
  • Beginner Speech and Debate: 9am to 12pm [$295]
  • Elementary Speech and Debate(Level 2): 9am to 12pm [$295]

 

• August 3rd to August 7th​
  • Advanced LD Debate New Topic Prep Session: 1pm to 4pm [$295]
  • Advanced Public Forum Debate New Topic Prep Session: 1pm to 4pm [$295]
  • New LD Topic Jumpstart Prep Session for Beginners: 1pm to 4pm [$295] - Just Added
  • Elementary Speech Only: Oratory, Interpretation, Spontaneous: 9am to 12pm [$295] - Just Added

 

• August 10th to August 14th​
  • Advanced LD Debate (New Topic Prep Session): 1pm to 4pm [$295]
  • New LD Topic Jumpstart Prep Session for Beginners: 1pm to 4pm [$295] - Just Added

​

Summer Camp Descriptions: 
​

• Beginner Speech and Debate​
  • Who: This camp is for any student beginning their entry into the wonderful world of speech and debate. 
  • Events: Students will explore multiple speech and debate events including: Lincoln-Douglas debate, Parliamentary debate, Congressional Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Oratorical Interpretation, and Expository speaking. 
  • Debate: students will learn the art of debate by learning about logic, argumentation, rebuttal strategy, and analytical reasoning. 
  • Speech: students will spend a significant portion of time training to become powerful orators through verbal drills, exercises, and learning rhetorical strategy
  • Philosophy: Students will spend a quarter of their time mastering foundational philosophy that is used in debate. Authors include John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, and more! Students will explore topics around morality, ethics, government, justice, objectivism, and more! 
  • In class activities include: Lincoln-Douglas debates, congressional debate rounds, SPAR debates, impromptu speaking, case writing, verbal static drills, crystallization drills, rebuttal redo drills, philosophical discussions, and occasional games like: “Debate Baseball”, “Presidential Debates”; “Do I Have a Right?”, and much more!
  • Topics that students will learn about include: public speaking, formal debate, spontaneous debate, impromptu speaking (learn how to give a five minute speech on any topic with only two minutes or preparation), oratory, argumentation, technical writing, research, evidence gathering, persuasion techniques, constitutional principles (all 27 amendments), logic, political philosophy (e.g. John Locke’s social contract theory), morality (e.g. Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative) and ethics (e.g. Aristotle),  theories of justice (e.g. John Rawls’ veil of ignorance theory), current events, democratic theory (e.g. Robert Dah’s five criteria for a democracy), issue selection in debate, writing succinctly, how to deliver closing arguments, cross-examination strategies, case preparation, blocks preparation, etc.  

 

• Experienced Debate
  • Who: Any student with 1 or more years of debate experience. 
  • Lay debate mastery: advanced framework argumentation (value, value criterion), mastery of the contention model, how to defend and refute popular frameworks, argument delivery, argument analysis, strategies that maximize persuasive appeal in front of parent judges, how to write strategic cases for traditional debates, how to give powerful rebuttal speeches, establishing and maintaining room presence
  • Circuit debate arguments: Impact weighing, Link weighing, answering extinction arguments, "tricks", permutations, answering common "Kritiks", consequentialist frameworks, impact weighing abuse scenarios, conditionality, RVIs, topicality, PICs, spreading, debate strategy, critical debate, philosophical framework debate, theory debate, etc. 
  • Future Topic Primers: students will get an overview of all potential topics for the upcoming debate year. This will give them all a jump start on the upcoming debate year so they can spend more time debating and less time working on case development during the school year.
  • We strongly recommend students pair 1 week of this "Experienced Debate" camp with 1 week of our "Advanced Prep Session for the New Topic" 

 

• Elementary Debate (3rd, 4th, 5th)
  • Who: This camp is for any elementary school student in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade.
  • Topics Students Will Learn About: public speaking, speech, oratory, prepared and spontaneous speeches how to make sound arguments, logic and critical thinking, technical writing, “claim, data, warrant, impact”, introduction to debate, impromptu speaking, the constitution, verbal static, rhetoric, crystallization, how to use analogies in debate, emotive speaking, philosophy, introduction to middle school debate and how to prepare for it, etc. 
  • In-Class Activities, Games, and Exercises Include: delivering spontaneous and prepared speeches, SPAR debates, “Constitutional Convention”, “Debate Baseball, emotive speaking drills, impromptu speaking, mini-debate tournaments in class, crystallization drills, “Taboo Verbal Static”, philosophical discussions (for example: Is it okay to ever tell a lie? Is it your duty to give to charity?), “How Loud Can You Get”, “Running for President”, “Problem-Solution” speeches, “Tongue Twister Fun Speaking Exercise”, “Storytelling Games”,  “Making a Commercial”   

 

• Advanced Prep Sessions for the New Topic​ - LD
  • Students will receive high-octane lectures on the new topic, learn affirmative and negative case positions, develop blocks, learn theory-related arguments for the new topic, develop multiple cases for both sides of the new topic, learn key research areas, and receive a semester's worth of preparation in just a single week. This is the session to enroll in to jumpstart the Fall semester and be tournament ready before the school year even begins.  

​

• Advanced Prep Sessions for the New Topic​ - Public Forum
  • ​Students will receive high-octane lectures on the new topic, learn affirmative and negative case positions, develop blocks,  develop multiple cases for both sides of the new topic, learn key research areas, and receive a semester's worth of preparation in just a single week. This is the session to enroll in to jumpstart the Fall semester and be tournament ready before the school year even begins. 

 

• Beginner New Topic Prep Sessions for the New Topic​
  • Beginner students will receive a significant jumpstart on the new topic, learn affirmative and negative case positions, develop blocks, learn theory-related arguments for the new topic, develop multiple cases for both sides of the new topic, learn key research areas, and receive a semester's worth of preparation in just a single week. This is the session to enroll in to jumpstart the Fall semester and be tournament ready before the school year even begins.  

 

• Beginner Speech Only Camp
  • This camp is for beginner students only. They will learn the art of speech. Students will learn how to deliver all kinds of different speeches: prepared speeches, spontaneous speeches, and interpretation-oriented speeches. This class will focus on the following speech events: Oratorical Interpretation, Declamation, Original Oratory, Expository/Informative, and Impromptu. Speech is one of the best parts of the broader "Speech and Debate" world and this camp is 100% dedicated to the fantastic world of Speech. It will be highly enjoyable, deeply informative, and absolutely transferable to the real world. 


• Elementary Speech Only Camp
  • This camp is for elementary school (3rd, 4th, 5th) students only. They will learn the art of speech. Students will learn how to deliver all kinds of different speeches: prepared speeches, spontaneous speeches, and interpretation-oriented speeches. This class will focus on the following speech events: Oratorical Interpretation, Declamation, Original Oratory, Expository/Informative, and Impromptu. Speech is one of the best parts of the broader "Speech and Debate" world and this camp is 100% dedicated to the fantastic world of Speech. It will be highly enjoyable, deeply informative, and absolutely transferable to the real world. 

​
Summer Teachers:
Learn from instructors that went to Yale Law School, Berkeley, and Stanford


SACHIN JAIN
Sachin is the founder of Athens Debate. Sachin has 16 years of experience competing and coaching Speech and Debate. His students have achieved great success at the local, state, and national levels. He completed his undergraduate degree Summa Cum Laude from UC Berkeley and his Masters of Public Policy from the top ranked policy school in the country, UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Sachin has taught undergraduate students at UC Berkeley, debate at Stanford University, and at various debate academies in the Bay Area.  Most notably, Sachin uses his experience in Speech and Debate to find success in the real world. He has worked in political and policy capacities at the United States Senate, White House, San Jose City Council, the Governor of California, President of the UC System, and the Mayor of San Jose. ​He enjoys teaching students how to make debate come alive for them and be applicable to their future pursuits. Debate changed his life and he hopes to do the same for all of his students.


CAMERON BAGHAI
Cameron holds a Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School where he graduated with a near perfect academic record. Cameron has clerked with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, served as a litigation associate for one of the nation's most premiere law firms, O'Melveny & Meyers LLP, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA with a degree in Philosophy. Cameron has achieved great success in debate at the high school and collegiate levels. In high school, Cameron qualified to the Tournament of Champions (TOC) in both his Junior and Senior years. Cameron won multiple bid tournaments including Harvard-Westlake, USC, and CPS. He went undefeated at the UC Berkeley Invitational and reached late elimination rounds Stanford, Berkeley, USC, Harvard-Westlake, USC, and more. He received 1st speaker awards at numerous national tournaments.  As a debate coach, Cameron has taught students from across California and his students  have placed 1st at the Novice National Championships, California Round-Robin, Golden Gate Desert Invitational, and many other tournaments.  He has qualified debaters to the TOC and State tournaments every year of his coaching career.  Many of those debaters advanced to deep outrounds at those tournaments, in addition to Nationals. ​Cameron has coached for debate luminaries like Paras Kumar. Cameron has taught for the Victory Briefs Institute (summers of 2009, 2010, 2011) and has previously served as an Assistant Coach for Brentwood High School where his students qualified to the TOC, won Novice Nationals, and reached late elimination rounds at some of the nation's most prestigious tournaments. ​ As a college debater, Cameron qualified to the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (the college equivalent of the TOC) as a freshman.  He consistently received 1st and 2nd Speaker awards at most tournaments from 2009 - 2012, advanced to late elimination rounds at almost every tournament attended, and was consistently ranked in the top 25 debaters in the country.  Cameron brings enormous value to Athens by giving our students access to a top debate mind, a legal expert with significant academic and professional experience in legal academia, philosophy, and public policy. Learning from someone who advises circuit court judges and is sought after by this nation's top law firms is a true privilege for Athens students.