The SDI is excited to announce the continuation of our four-week session for serious and highly motivated debate students. As a response to popular demand, we are now able to accept up to 100 students. Why has this program grown so quickly over just a few years? Our staff is outstanding, our personal skills focus is unparalleled, our prices are low, and student reviews are consistently fantastic. If you want to be taught by the best lab leaders in the nation, the four week session of the 2007 Spartan Debate Institute is for you.

Click here to apply!!!

Four Week Institute, July 6 - August 1, 2008 $3300

Why Choose the Four Week SDI?

• Best Faculty - Four week staff are among the most sought after debate institute instructors in the nation. Simply put, they are incredible debate thinkers and teachers dedicated to providing the most fun and educational experience possible. You don't have to worry about what particular lab students will be placed in because our staff is great throughout each and every lab. Our staff roster is not just a few shining stars--they are all experienced, dedicated and extremely talented. Click here for more details about the four-week staff -- and if you ask around to investigate our staffs' reputation, you will almost certainly be impressed.
  
  
• Quality Reputation & Overwhelming Recommendations - At the end of last year's 4-week SDI, we surveyed every student for feedback about the camp. The results were an impressive endorsement: 99% of 2005 attendees would recommend the 4-week SDI to a friend. We also asked how the SDI compared to other institutes our students had attended, and virtually all of this feedback favored the SDI. Students mentioned several specific factors, including more practice debates, better evidence, dedicated instructors, and earlier completion of core research assignments.
  
  
• Lab Ratios Are Excellent - Some institutes place students in lab groups of 24 with only two instructors. At the 4-week SDI a lab group with two instructors would never have more than 16 students. Typically, we have three full-time institute faculty members teaching workgroups that are no larger than 24 students. Better lab ratios mean that SDI students get more personal time and exposure to more of our great staff.
  
  
• More Actual Debates and Rebuttal Redos - By providing four-week students with a packet of evidence at registration or beforehand, practice debates and speeches will begin within the first day or two of the camp. The four-week session will include multiple judged tournaments for relaxed, yet structured, opportunities for students to gain direct feedback. Four-week students will leave the SDI having participated in at least eighteen practice debates. Each student will also participate in several rebuttal redo sessions where they will have the opportunity to immediately integrate coaching advice by re-giving speeches from earlier practice debates.
  
  
• Work With a Variety of Instructors - Students will be placed in lab groups appropriate to their experience level that are run by multiple lab instructors (student to teacher ratios will never be greater than 8:1), plus they will work with several additional faculty members over the course of the camp in even smaller settings. Topics for these sessions will include a variety of core argument writing groups and several debate theory practicums. By the end of the camp, four week students will probably have gotten feedback and instruction from most of the instructors.
  
  
• Personal Skills Development - We have a heavy emphasis on individual debating and skills development, not just mass lectures. One unique part of this approach is a technique called "co-teaching" where students become an active part of the learning environment by directly participating in the lab instruction of some particular topics. To really learn how to master the subjects necessary for debate success, four-week SDI students will take part in several guided exercises where they will learn how to explain, persuade and convince others of debate concepts. Two examples are student-driven (and instructor guided) strategy discussions, and sessions where students experience the perspective of judges by practicing the process of deciding and explaining how they would vote in actual debates.
  
  
• Very Competitive Prices and No Hidden Fees – The SDI is already well known for offering outstanding debate instruction at affordable prices, and the four-week session is a perfect continuation of this philosophy. Comparable debate camps are hundreds of dollars more expensive. Considering our staff, quality, prices, and constant innovation, the 4-week SDI is among the best and most affordable debate camps around. Our prices include tuition, room and board, copying of lab evidence, our complete 2007 Evidence CD (described below), several fun activities (like recreational and dance events) and even one of our annual "stylish T-shirts". There are also no application fees and no additional or separate lab fees. Plus we offer a limited pool of need-based scholarship funds.
  
  
• Access to Our Unique "Evidence CD" - As part of the four-week SDI session, each student will receive a full version of the 2007 SDI Evidence CD. This will include a digitally scanned copy of every file produced by every lab and shared work group throughout our 2, 3, and 4 week sessions. This means that for no additional cost, four-week SDI students will gain their own personal copy of the evidence researched by hundreds of students and staff-persons this summer. No more worrying about lost files or expensive and distracting last minute copy sessions. Only attendees of the SDI will have access to our popular evidence CDs and only four-week students will gain free access to a version of the CD that contains evidence from the four-week session.

Click here to apply!!!

Spartan Sophomores

The SDI offers a special program for students entering their second year of debate (grades 9-11). Two classes, both limited to no more than 24 participants, place heavy emphasis on the development of debating skills, with a particular focus on practice debating.

This year’s classes will be led by Will Repko, MSU’s two-time NDT champion head coach, and Tara Tate, the Director of Debate at Glenbrook South High School.

In order to apply for this program, simply fill out the application for the four-week program; when asked to specify a lab preference, you may specify either the Repko-led lab or the Tate-led lab.

The final round of the 2007 four-week session tournament. Hilary Ledwell and Collin Roark faced off against Daniel Taylor and Matthew Pesce.