The Colloquium For Academic Debate

Curriculum

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The Colloquium for Academic Debate understands deeply the need for individualized attention and a curriculum whose contours can be adapted to accommodate each student’s personal needs. Our curriculum is modeled after other successful and established institutes with a few ideas of our own, so we expect outstanding results. Join us in August for this fantastic opportunity!

- Labs - students will research, write cases, and receive skills training with a few instructors daily. All of our labs CAD will have a staff-student ratio of 1:4, typically with three or four instructors per lab.

- Practice debates - rounds debated for practice on the camp resolution and watched/evaluated by a faculty member or associate. CAD guarantees each student six practice rounds during the six days.

- Office hours - students can meet with instructors one-on-one to receive help on an individual basis or ask specific questions which are not oriented for group discussion. Campers will have the opportunity to sign up to visit with faculty members and associates during allotted time slots so that each receive equal opportunities.

- Skills-driven lecture series - according to student needs and experience. By offering three separate series for skills and strategy lectures, all campers will receive instruction on powerful strategies that are neither too simple nor too complex given their debate background, and also of a helpful nature whether they compete nationally, regionally, or locally.

- Elective modules - lectures in debate strategies, the theoretical issues that help us decide what kinds of things should happen in a debate, and philosophical or otherwise academic ideas which apply to debate. The modules will be based upon student experience and provide them with opportunities to add to their knowledge base.

- Demonstration debates - debates for the entire camp to observe between staff members or students. These will be focused primarily on allowing the camp to learn strong debate techniques by seeing them in action.

- Video analysis - students will discuss videos of debates that occurred this season. Faculty members will moderate these discussions in order to underscore some of the strongest techniques displayed by debaters.

- Capped enrollment - CAD will accept no more than 100 students. A smaller institute means better staff as well as a comfortable, working environment.

Application

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The application for students to attend the Colloquium for Academic Debate is available here. Follow the instructions to join us in August!

5 Great Reasons You Should Spend a Week at CAD This August

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1. Location, Location, Location: At CAD, you don't have to fly halfway across the country, or drive 4 hours through Texas in the hot summer. Instead, take the 5-45 minute drive to Westside High School, which is conveniently located near i-10 on Highway 6 South, providing easy access from nearly every part of the Houston metropolitan area.

2. Top-Notch, Varied Staff: We intent to bring in amazing staff members from Texas as well as other regions of the nation who either had extremely successful LD careers, great coaching careers, a unique perspective on LD debate, or all of the above. Our staff members include champions of every level of debate important to students in Texas: TFA, UIL, and TOC. Additionally, we are acquiring staff members who have taught at nearly every major LD institute in the nation, which makes for a situation in which those of you who either haven't attended a camp, or have only been to one, get a taste of different curricula from around the nation.

3. Cost: We are easily the cheapest LD workshop in the nation, especially in relation to our staff. Because of the eagerness of area coaches and members of the debate community who find this to be a long-overdue endeavor, we are able to price our camp low enough for virtually anyone to attend, and are able to offer discounts to those in need of them.

4. Fun Times: We intend to work very hard over the 6 day period, but that doesn't mean no fun. That's why we want to encourage you to bring in your teammates; that way, you can interact with those you know, as well as meet other students from all around the Houston area in a non-competitive environment, as well as interact with staff members from Houston, the general Texas area, as well as other regions around the country.

5. Getting to Go Home: At CAD, well, you don't have to hang out with us all day, which will most likely let you give your brain some needed down time. Many students get extremely exhausted at different camps, and while going out to the movies might remedy that, being able to sleep in your own bed will probably be much more effective. The day-camp environment gives you your entire evening to yourself, and you won't be restricted to going to the movies at night (your parents or guardians will be the arbiters of that).

Staff

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The Colloquium for Academic Debate thanks you for your interest in our program and mission. Here are our initially confirmed staff members for the 2008 edition. Come back and check frequently for new staff members as they are added over the course of the next month.

DIRECTORS

Michael O'Connell debated for four years and graduated in 2007 from Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He competed in elimination rounds at Dowling, Apple Valley (2005), and the University of Texas, received bids at Apple Valley (2006) and St. Mark's, and championed the Mid-America Cup at Valley, also with a bid. He received speaker awards at Apple Valley, Emory, the University of Texas, Dowling, and the Dallas Debate Round Robin where he was also a quarterfinalist. He was twice a finalist, once a semifinalist, and once part of a semifinals closeout Bishop Kelley close-out in LD debate at the Oklahoma State Tournament. He was twice runner-up, once a finalist, and once champion in foreign extemporaneous speaking at the Oklahoma State Tournament. He competed twice at NFL Nationals in extemporaneous speaking, as well. In his sophomore year, he was the only non-senior elected officer on the Bishop Kelley Speech & Debate Team; he was Vice President as a junior, President as a senior, and coached LD and Policy novices for three years. His novices appeared as late as semifinals in the Oklahoma State Tournament in LD and in quarterfinals in Policy.

Michael began coaching immediately after graduation, where two of his students cleared to elimination rounds at NFL Nationals. In the 2007-2008 season, his students have competed in elimination rounds of Grapevine, Yale, Houston-Memorial, Hendrick Hudson, Manchester, the University of Texas, the Glenbrooks, Harvard, Berkeley, Harker, the Texas Forensics Association State Tournament, and the Harker Round Robin, qualified to NFL and NCFL Nationals, received bids at Princeton, Hendrick Hudson, and Stanford, and won the Lexington Round Robin and the Oklahoma State Tournament. At this year's Tournament of Champions alongside Stephen Hess and Eric Palmer, Michael coached an octafinalist, a semifinalist, and the tournament's top speaker. He is currently taking time off from school pursuing music and writing while in the process of transferring to the University of Texas. Michael brings institute experience from the National Symposium for Debate as well as the University of Texas National Institute in Forensics.

Quinn Olivarez graduated in 2006 from Mayde Creek High School, and is the director of LD debate at Carnegie Vanguard High School in Houston, Texas. In his two years there, his students have participated in outrounds of the Greenhill Fall Classic, Houston-Memorial, Big Bronx (The New York City Invitiational), St. Mark's Heart of Texas, the Victory Briefs Tournament (VBT), and the Stanford Invitational. Quinn's students have also competed in elimination rounds of the Grapevine tournament, the UT Longhorn Classic, as well as TFA state. Quinn's students have been also invited to participate in a variety of round robins including the DDI Round Robin, Lone Star (twice), and the Lexington Round Robin. As a competitor, Quinn only competed for one year in Varsity LD and made outround appearances at every TFA qualifier he attended, won 2 of them, as well as maintained a winning record on the national circuit. He was also a UIL quarterfinalist. He currently attends the University of Houston where he is triple-majoring in English, Philosophy, and Art History.

FACULTY

Nathan Abell debated for four years at Marcus High School, qualifying to the TOC his junior and senior years. He was a semifinalist at the TFA state Tournament his junior year; he qualified to the championship three years in a row. As a junior, he also placed eleventh in the country at Nationals. As a senior, he won the Colleyville Heritage Winter Invitational, the Rex Fleming Memorial Tournament (Houston-Memorial), and the Victory Briefs Round Robin, and amassed five bids to the TOC. These bids came from Colleyville Heritage, Houston-Memorial, the Greenhill Fall Classic, the Grapevine Classic, and the Victory Briefs Tournament. He has also competed in outrounds at many other tournaments, including the New York City Invitational (Big Bronx XXXVI), the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational, the Glenbrooks, and the UT Longhorn Classic. He competed at the Greenhill, Bronx, Victory Briefs, and Stanford Round Robins, taking second at Stanford and winning Victory Briefs. This year, he was an assistant coach at St. Louis Park High School in Minnesota, where his students received 7 bids to the TOC. He brings teaching experience from two summers at the Victory Briefs Institute.

Brian Agler is a 2007 graduate of Cinco Ranch High School in Katy, and currently attends Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. During his extremely limited career, Brian was extremely successful. He began his novice career by winning the NLD division of the Woodlands tournaments, and won the VLD division of a TFA qualifier the next week. Brian was a two-time TFA state qualifier, and advanced to outrounds his senior year. On top of his local success, Brian advanced to out-rounds at difficult TOC qualifier tournaments including Houston-Memorial, UT, and Colleyville Heritage. He brings CAD previous instruction from the UT National Institute in Forensics.

Corbin Cass is a 2006 graudate of Highland Park High School in Dallas, TX. During his extremely dominant senior year, he was in quarters of Greenhill, semis of St. Mark's, semis of the Glenbrooks, made finals appearances at Emory and Berkeley, and won Colleyville Heritage and Stanford; he ended his career with a quarters appearance at the 2006 TOC, being eliminated by the eventual winner. In his first year of coaching, his students were easily two of the most successful debaters in the nation. Collectively, they were in quarters of the Greenhill Fall Classic, won the St. Mark's Heart of Texas Invitational, Apple Valley (The Minneapple), the Stanford Invitational, the 2007 Tournament of Champions, and were in finals of Emory and Berkeley (Cal Invitational); students of his also were also the top 2 seeds at the 2007 Tournament Of Champions. Corbin brings CAD teaching experience from the National Symposium For Debate.

Ben Clancy graduates this year from Westwood High School in Texas. He won this year's Colleyville Heritage Winter Invitational and debated in the semifinal round of both the Greenhill Fall Classic and the Houston-Memorial Endgame Tournament. In addition, Ben competed in late elimination rounds at Emory, the Victory Briefs Tournament, and the UT Longhorn Classic. He broke at every national tournament he attended his senior year, amassing five bids to the TOC. At the TOC he had a winning record, getting knocked out in the final prelim, and was the only person to defeat the champion throughout the course of the tournament. Ben also won the titles of a number of major local tournaments, including Stony Point, Round Rock, and O'Connor; he also thrice debated in the outrounds at TFA State. Ben will bring teaching experience from the Victory Briefs Institute to CAD.

David Donatti is the co-president of the debate team at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School, one of the most commanding forensics programs in the country. He is the 2008 Texas Forensics Association State Champion. The champion of this year’s Victory Briefs Tournament, David has debated in late elimination rounds at a number of major national circuit tournaments. He debated finals at both the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational and the Bronx Round Robin, semifinals of the Grapevine Classic and the New York City Invitational (Bronx Science), and quarterfinals of the Greenhill Fall Classic, the Minneapple (Apple Valley), and the Barkley Forum for High Schools (Emory). David holds the distinction of earning the most bids to the Tournament of Champions in the country — eight — this season. David finished his stellar career with an octa-finals appearance at the 2008 Tournament of Champions, in addition to a qualification to NFL Nationals. David will bring teaching experience from the Victory Briefs Institute.

BobieJo Ferguson competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate for 2 years and graduated in 2005 from The Hockaday School in Dallas, TX. During those two years, she broke to in elimination rounds of the Mid-America Cup at Valley, the Wake Forest Earlybird, the Lexington Winter Classic, the UT Longhorn Classic, the Barkley Forum at Emory, Alta Silver & Black, and the Texas Forensics Association State Tournament (twice), and qualified to and competed at the Tournament of Champions. BobieJo also competed at the Lexington Round Robin and the Chesapeake Bay Round Robin. She received speaker awards at UT, the TFA State Tournament, and the Lexington Round Robin. She will graduate Phi Beta Kappa in 2009 from the University of Texas English Honors and Liberal Arts Honors Programmes.

Petey Gil-Montllor debated for Schreiber High School in New York, where he was a two-time TOC qualifier. Petey was undefeated in preliminary debates at many major national tournaments including Greenhill, St. Mark's, Manchester, Apple Valley, Hendrick Hudson, and Stanford, and also cleared to elimination rounds at the Glenbrooks, Emory, and the Tournament of Champions. Currently coaching Trinity Preparatory School in Florida, Petey's students have won Greenhill, Harvard, the Glenbrooks, Florida State, the Bronx Round Robin, and reached the final round at the Vassar Round Robin, Harvard, Yale and Bronx Science. They have closed out the Florida Blue Key and have repeatedly reached elimination rounds at the TOC. He is an undergraduate in the Departments of Philosophy and Political Science at the University of Chicago.

Michael Grassmeyer debated for and graduated from Fremont High School in Nebraska, and debated while attending St. Louis Park High School in Minnesota. Over the course of his career, Michael competed in elimination rounds of Wake Forest, Apple Valley, the Iowa Caucus, the Glenbrooks, Blake, Omaha-Westside, the Dowling Catholic Paradigm, and the Nebraska State Tournament, received bids to the Tournament of Champions from Stanford and Alta, and competed at the TOC. Michael also competed at the prestigious Vassar and Dowling Round Robins, and debated in elimination rounds of the Iowa Round Robin. He now coaches policy debate at Fremont High School and is applying to art schools around the country.

Derek Green graduated from Rice University in 2008 with a B.A. (summa cum laude) in Philosophy (honors) and History. He debated for three years at Lakeville High School in Lakeville, MN, debating in the elimination rounds of numerous major nationally prominent tournaments and qualifying for the 2004 Tournament of Champions. In addition to coaching numerous successful students at Lakeville and Cinco Ranch High School (Katy, TX), he has lectured and directed labs at the National Symposium for Debate. In the fall, Derek will begin pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Northwestern University.

Nicole Heathcock competed for four years in policy debate for Broken Arrow High School, just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. During these four years she was dominant on the local circuit, twice finishing in the top 16 teams at the Oklahoma State Tournament. She also attended NFL Nationals in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking. Nicole has been coaching policy debate and extemporaneous speaking since her graduation in 2006; she has also had brief forays in Lincoln-Douglas Debate on the national level, including coaching the champion of the Mid-America Cup at Valley during the 2006-07 season. We are glad to have her at CAD, where she hopes to help debaters understand the use policy concepts in LD and offer instruction on critical arguments and other unusual strategies. Nicole also brings institute experience from Cameron University's policy camp.

Todd Liipfert is the co-president of the debate team at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School. Todd has competed in elimination rounds at some of the most competitive tournaments in the country, including the Glenbrooks, New York City Invitational (Bronx Science), the Victory Briefs Tournament, the Harvard National Invitational, and the Wake Forest National Early Bird. He debated the final round of the Minneapple at Apple Valley High School, one of the nation’s largest and most competitive tournaments. In addition to an impressive record of accomplishments on the national circuit, Todd is a top debater on the local and state level. A three-time qualifier for the TFA State Tournament, Todd has twice competed in the final round of the Cinco Ranch Round-up (he took the championship as a junior). He has also participated in outrounds at many of the most competitive tournaments in Texas: Greenhill, St. Mark’s, Grapevine, Houston-Memorial, Churchill, and the UT Longhorn Classic. This year, Todd placed in the Greenhill Round Robin. He also participated in the Archer Round Robin and closed out the PDAA Tournament at the Pinnacle Winter Seminar. Todd finished his senior year with a bang that included a quarter-finals appearance at TFA State, an octa-finals appearance at the 2008 Tournament of Champions, as well as a qualification to NFL Nationals. Todd will bring teaching experience from the Victory Briefs Institute.

Greg Miąskiewicz graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006 with a B.Phil degree in Philosophy, Politics and History, and is one of the most accomplished Lincoln-Douglas debate coaches in the country. In the last few seasons alone, his students have won Stanford, Colleyvile, the Stanford Round Robin, been finalists at UT, Emory, the Tournament of Champions, and Berkeley, and been in late elimination rounds of Blake, the Glenbrooks, St. Mark's, Greenhill, and Valley. He has also coached two TOC quarterfinalists, a runner up, and has summer institute experience from heading the philosophy program at the National Symposium for Debate. Greg currently resides in Boulder, Colorado where he works as an interactive designer for InteractiveCorps.

Melissa Patel graduated in 2007 from the Rowland Hall- St. Mark's Upper School in Salt Lake City, and she now attends a joint Master and Bachelors Program at Bard College and Columbia University under the Distinguished Scientist Scholars Program. She is triple majoring in continental philosophy, mathematics, and human rights. She has coached students at the Rowland Hall- St. Mark's Upper School, The PolyPrep School, Stoneman Douglas High School, and Fremont High School. Her students have qualified to the Tournament of Champions as well as won the Nova Titan TOC qualifying tournament. Additionally, her students have participated in outrounds or qualified at Emory, Stanford, Harvard, Crestian, and the Dowling Catholic Paradigm and Round Robin. As a debater, Melissa was in outrounds of ASU, Alta Silver and Black, Berkeley, UT Longhorn classic, USC, and CPS. Additionally, she qualified and cleared at both NFL nationals and NCFL nationals as well as won Utah State. She has also taught at SNFI and SCFI.

Kristen Ray is a veteran instructor; this is her seventh summer as an institute faculty member. When she debated for Georgetown High School, she was part of the only finals closeout in LD in TFA State history and won the UT Longhorn Classic. She also advanced to elimination rounds at such prestigious tournaments as Greenhill, Grapevine, and Houston-Memorial. Kristen previously has helped coach at S.F. Austin and Westwood High Schools in Austin, TX, and has taught at the Victory Briefs Institute as well as completing her seventh consecutive summer teaching at the UT National Institute in Forensics. She holds two bachelor's degrees from UT-Austin, one in Plan II Honors and the other in art history. This year she has been teaching literacy at the pre-k through middle school levels. She will start work at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the fall on a master's degree in Modern and Contemporary Art, Theory, and Criticism.

Ravi Sankar debated for Trinity Preparatory School in Florida, where he was a two-time TOC qualifier. He earned 2 bids his junior year and reached the runoff round with a 5-2 record. His senior year, he earned 5 bids and finished with a 4-3 record. Ravi won the Bronx Round Robin, finaled at the Florida Blue Key, reached semifinals at Yale and Florida Varsity States, and was a quarterfinalist at Harvard (twice) and VBT. He also competed in outrounds at Bronx, Glenbrooks, Greenhill, and Emory and competed in the VBT and Greenhill round robins. In addition, Ravi and teammate Jake Nebel collectively coached their novices and JVrs to successes including: semifinals in the Varsity division of Florida Blue Key, doubles in Crestian’s Varsity division, octas at Harvard JV, and octas at Glenbrooks JV. He will be attending Stanford University in the fall where he plans to study computer science/something technical and continental philosophy.

Sohail Syed debated for four years at Niskayuna HS in New York. Sohail debated primarily on the local circuit the first two years and then two years nationally. During his senior year, he fully qualified to the TOC with two bids. He won the Lexington Round Robin and was a semifinalist at the Harker Round Robin. He cleared at every tournament he attended, reaching octafinals at Manchester and finishing at 13^th speaker, quarterfinals of the Malcolm A. Bump Memorial at Hendrick Hudson where he was coached over and was 15^th speaker, semifinals of Princeton where he was also 4^th speaker, and a double-octafinalist at Harker. Sohail will be a freshman at Rennsselaer Polytechnic Institute and is in the 7 year accelerated medical program, with plans to major in Biology and minor in German.

Christian Tarsney debated for two years at St. Louis Park , and has coached there for the past three. In his second year as a debater, he reached the final round of the Iowa Caucuses, qualified for the Tournament of Champions, where he finished with a winning record, and placed seventh at NFL Nationals. In the three years since his graduation, his debaters at St. Louis Park have collected a total of 27 bids to the TOC, won the Iowa Caucuses (twice, once by closeout), the Dowling Paradigm (twice), the Alta Silver and Black Invitational (by closeout) and the Stanford and Georgetown Round Robins, as well as reaching finals at Apple Valley, Stanford and Omaha Westside, semifinals of Blake, St. Mark's and NDCA Nationals, and quarterfinals of the TOC. He is currently studying philosophy as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota.

ASSOCIATE FACULTY

Emily Allen graduates this year from Grapevine High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In spite of a limited career (competing only her junior and senior year), she advanced to outrounds at tournaments including TFA State, Colleyville Heritage (where she also was 2nd speaker), and Florida Blue Key (where she was one ballot short of a TOC bid). As a senior she was very successful on the local circuit, debating in finals and late out rounds of several TFA qualifiers and emerging from national circuit tournaments such as St. Marks and The Glenbrooks with winning records. She was vice-president of the Grapevine Speech and Debate Team, and plans to attend Trinity University in the fall where she intends to continue debating.

Garner Lanier just finished his senior year at Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There Garner was President of the highly competitive NFL team and was a team officer as a junior as well. Garner was a dominant local debater with a knack for simple persuasion; his deliberate approach garnered him two NFL Nationals qualifications in LD (he cleared as a junior), being one of four members of a team that was the first in history to close out the Oklahoma State Tournament in semifinals (along with co-director Michael O’Connell), and won the tournament outright as a senior. Garner had little opportunity due to financial constraints to compete on the national circuit, but his appearances were not errant rolls of the dice; indeed, he had a winning record at Apple Valley and competed in elimination rounds of UT and Grapevine. Garner will attend the University of Puget Sound in the fall.

Ryan Lester graduates this spring from Dulles High School in Sugar Land, TX. He competed for four years, and in his junior and senior years, he participated in outrounds of Houston-Memorial, UT, TFA state, the Florida Blue Key, and Colleyville-Heritage; these successes are in addition to an onslaught of TFA qualifiers in the Houston area where he was dominant, including championing the Westfield TFA Invitational. On top of these achievements, he was the UIL 5A District Co-Champion, and won the Florida Blue Key Round Robin. He will be attending St. Edward's University this fall, where he plans to study philosophy and political science. He brings CAD experience from UT's National Institute in Forensics.