Stanford National Forensic Institute

The Core Program for Public Forum is designed for students from intermediate through advanced level. Students will be grouped by experience and competitive success within teaching groups so that each lab can progress as a unit as rapidly as possible.

Given the focus of this program on skill building, this program offers students with little to no experienced coaching at their schools the opportunity to develop the necessary skills to actually coach themselves.

This program features:

• A low student to staff ratio - averaging one staff member for every 10-12 students

• A great number of practice debates - roughly half of the total instructional time will be spent on conducting practice rounds

• Seminars on brainstorming, constructing and supporting arguments and theory of argumentation from the ground up

• Topic analyses on a number of commonly used topic areas through a spirited examination of current events

• Living and working on the Stanford University campus in a stimulating and secure environment

• Incorporating videotaping of speeches for review and analysis of speaking styles, cross-examination techniques and argument selection on at least a limited basis is planned

The camp is held in an intimate setting that allows plenty of question and answer sessions and one-on-one interaction with instructors, not just rote learning. Students are allowed to develop in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere with excellent supervision. Students will emerge from the program as more confident public speakers and as experts on the rules, style, and strategies of public forum debate, ready to compete in the fall.

We also offer a 2-Week Middle School Public Forum program for rising 7th and 8th graders.