Classes are capped at a 8:1 ratio of students to teachers. We are committed to providing individualized attention and having each student give speeches in every class they attend.
Sign up for Traditional & Public Forum Debate Summer Classes!
Classes offerings range from introductory level explorations of public speaking, critical thinking, and logic to advanced explorations of debate strategy and theory. Offerings vary in length and pricing. If you are interested in Public Forum classes, please view below:
Interested in Custom offerings for your school team? We have worked with many schools over the years and are able to create a coaching program for your team. Reach out to us at leadership@debatedrills.com and we will work to connect you with coaches.
Our 8 week summer classes meet on Sunday late afternoons June through August for 2 hours weekly with 1 hour supplementary office hours during the week. Students are led through our structured curriculum and walk away from the program with a strong foundation to succeed during the season.
Price: $795
Dates: June 13 - Aug 8 (8 weeks, July 4th Weekend Off)
Timings: Sunday, 4-6 PM (PST)
Ages: 6th - 12th Grade
Instructor(s): Paras Kumar, Lucas Clarke, Cameron Baghai
Office Hours: 3 hours/week
Live Debates:Yes!
Unsure which class is best for you?
Paras received a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a PhD student in Science Communication. In December 2018, Paras stepped away from his PhD at UC Berkeley to focus on DebateDrills full-time. Paras is one of the most successful Speech and Debate coaches in the competitive K-12 debate history, having personally delivered several thousand hours of 1:1 tutoring to hundreds of students of all ages, backgrounds and debate events across the world. Paras founded DebateDrills and currently oversees all aspects of it's day-to-day workflows, including Classes. He coached the most successful 10th grade debater in American Debate History. By the age of 24, Paras became the first and only coach in the history of Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate to coach three consecutive students (2017-2019) to the Championship Debate at the annual National Championships: the Tournament of Champions (TOC).
Cameron received a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA. He clerked on the Ninth Circuit Appellate Court and worked at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers. As an attorney, he represented clients in high-stakes, high-profile civil litigation. As a debate competitor, Cameron had won numerous tournaments and speaker awards in both high school LD debate and college Parliamentary (NPDA) debate. In college, he coached powerhouse teams, winners of national championships, and debate luminaries. Cameron’s passion for debate never died, and so he eventually left law to return to Speech and Debate. Cameron is a core member of DebateDrill and principally architects the Traditional Debate curriculum and class instruction. Cameron leverages his extensive experience in law—the world of applied debate—to teach students advanced persuasion, critical thinking, and analysis.
Classes are capped at a 8:1 ratio of students to teachers. We are committed to providing individualized attention and having each student give speeches in every class they attend.
We pick our instructors very carefully and work hard to ensure a professional, high-quality learning experience. Our instructors have all graduated or currently attend prestigious colleges, were top debaters as competitors, and come to DebateDrills with prior teaching experience.
Each family has an individualized, live check in call with our staff to discuss student progress and places for future improvement.
We hold open Office Hours weekly. In these sessions, we synthesize all the preparation the team has, discuss strategy vs. common positions, and answer any questions the student has.
Three times per year, Paras (Berkeley PhD), Cameron (Yale Law), Raffi (Fulbright Scholar) and Prashant (Columbia Law) provide a 2 hour seminar for DebateDrills families focused on college admissions. We discuss how to leverage debate for applications, provide tips and tricks for essay writing, cover resume crafting, and much more. We’ve attended the most prestigious undergraduate and graduate programs in the world, and help our students do the same.
We offer extensive, unparalleled support to families to help source and register their children for tournaments year-round. We have helped 300+ families attend over 2000+ tournaments over the past 5 years.
Our in-house Video Library contains over 500 hours of do-it-yourself resources, spanning Lectures, Round Analyses, Rebuttal Redo Packets, and Tutoring Lesson Plans. All students get unlimited access to these resources for the duration of their time in our classes program.
Our curriculum is structured and designed from the lessons we have learned after providing 10,000+ hours of online debate coaching, numerous national champions, state champions, and tournament wins. We constantly iterate our pedagogy to ensure students learn efficiently and focus on the skills that produce champion debaters.
All of our coaching staff were high-performing middle and high students themselves and understand first-hand the rigors involved in being a successful debater while balancing schoolwork and other extracurriculars. We are constantly available to help mentor students through the inevitable ups and downs that accompany competitive debate.
We offer 1 week, 4 week, 8 week, and 11 week classes throughout the year, ranging from evening classes during the weekdays to afternoon classes during the weekends. Our schedule is designed to give you the ability to make debate work around your child's busy schedule.
Absolutely!
That’s not a problem! We provide video recordings of every class and check in with students that miss class to ensure they are on track to catch up.
Depending on the nature of your concern, we will work with you to find the most strategic solution. We have a strong reputation of being excellent service providers and are confident you will love your experience with us.
Yes! Homework will be calibrated to each students’ bandwidth to ensure flexibility but also encourage maximal growth.
Absolutely! Please contact us and we will help you assess what our best offering is for your unique needs.