Classic Debate Camp™ offers you the opportunity to...
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work one-on-one with outstanding coaches and former champions
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connect with other kids who love debate
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gain the skills you need to reach the next level
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prepare for next year's tournaments - whether they are in person or online
Classic Debate Camp™ Instructors Participate in Zoom Webinar Discussion
Classic Debate Camp recently hosted its first Zoom Webinar to introduce people to our amazing instructors. The PF staff members who participated were David Lyons, Bella Willhite, Anish Ganesh, Madelynn Einhorn, and Rich Haber, and the LD instructors were Natalie Schaller, Grace Johannes, Maya Arora, Nick Protasiewicz, Isaiah Paik, and Jen Gonda. (See staff bios on the PF staff and LD staff pages.) Not only did they talk about the unique qualities of our online camp, Classic Debate Camp-Virtual, they also discussed why we focus on traditional Lincoln-Douglas and why we take a balanced approach to Public Forum. See the recordings below:
Classic Debate Camp™ PF Debater Wins New Mexico State Tournament Again and Joins CDC PF Staff!
Bella Willhite, of La Cueva HS in Albuquerque, and her partner Roland Zhang went 8-0 and won the 2020 New Mexico state title in Public Forum. The NM state tournament was held at Volcano Vista HS on the last weekend of February. Bella and Roland both attended Classic Debate Camp in 2018. Bella also won the NM state championship in 2019, but with a different partner. We are very happy to announce that Bella will be coming back to CDC this summer as an instructor in our PF division. See her bio on the PF Staff page.
Classic Debate Camp™ LD Debaters Face Each Other in City Club Debate
Each year, the City Club of Cleveland hosts the final round of Lincoln-Douglas debate in the Northcoast NSDA District and calls it the Cleveland High School Debate Championship. This year, junior Allie Dettelbach (camper in 2018) prevailed against sophomore Dev Peyrat (camper in 2018 and 2019). This is the third year in a row that the City Club Debate has been won by a Classic Debate Camp graduate. Last year, Tia Speece (camper in 2017) won the City Club, and in 2018 Isaiah Paik (camper in 2016 and 2017) won. Congrats to Allie and Dev!
Classic Debate Camp™ Completes the Quest at Ohio State Finals
In Lincoln-Douglas, Clare Abboud (Classic Debate Camp camper in 2017) won the Ohio state championship. Leila Hamdan (2019) advanced to the semifinals and was walked over by teammate Clare. And Tony Liu (2018) reached the quarterfinals. Altogether 29 of the 86 LDers at States and 9 of 16 octafinalists in LD were Classic Debate Camp graduates.
In Public Forum, Classic Debate Camp instructor Rich Haber coached Sasha Haines and Maggie Mills to the Ohio state championship. Mr. Haber also coached the 2018 state champions in PF. Sophie Alber (2018) and Julianna Bragg (2019) advanced to the semis. Two PF teams reached the quarterfinals: the team of Daniel Yan (2018, 2019) and Abraham Paik (2018) and the team of Ananth Menon (2018, 2019) and Marcus Novak (2018). 15 of the 64 PF teams at States had at least one member who attended Classic Debate Camp.
In Congress, Drake Du (2018) won 2nd place, and Jessica Chang (2019) also made it to the final round.
Finally, Classic Debate Camp Director Peter Paik was inducted into the Ohio Speech and Debate Association Coaches Hall of Fame. See more pictures from States on the Tournament Pictures page and watch James Lewis's introduction of Mr. Paik as well as Mr. Paik's induction speech on Youtube.
Sixteen Classic Debate Camp™ Alumni Qualify for 2020 NSDA Nationals
While reports are still coming in, so far, 12 CDC alumni have earned their tickets to Albuquerque for the national tournament. In LD: Clare Abboud, Allie Dettelbach, Sydney Hardern, Tony Liu, Dev Peyrat, Sarah Grace Shurden, and Shruti Gautam. They join Nehal Chigurupati who auto-qualified last summer. In PF: Sarah Hatem and Abby McGowan. In IX: Kyle Boyer and Brady Condon. In USX: Ben Cohen and Isaac Stiepleman. In Big Questions: Destynn Keuchel. In World Schools: Jane Jusko and Kunal Ponkshe.
Classic Debate Camp™ Launches CDC-V
CDC-V (Classic Debate Camp-Virtual) will be the online version of the Classic Debate camp experience. For a number of weeks, we were hoping to offer both our in person program at Miami University in Ohio and CDC-V concurrently. However, considering the on-going pandemic and recent guidelines about which Ohio businesses are allowed to reopen and what they must do to reopen safely, the administrators of Classic Debate Camp have decided that it would be in the best interest of our campers and our staff members to stop our planning to meet in person this year and instead to focus our full attention on preparing for CDC-V. For more info about our decision, please click here. And for more info about CDC-V, please click here. We look forward to convening in person at Miami University in 2021.