Stanford Invitational Tournament

Thanks for joining us this summer!  Please return to see the dates of our 2022 programs which we anticipate to be available by late 2021.

Middle School Debate

SNFI Middle School programs prepare middle school students for competitive speech and debate in local leagues and prepares them to enter high school level debate events.  The skills honed in SNFI programs aid students in their academic classwork as they prepare for a rigorous pre-college academic track in high school.  Speech and debate hone many of the most imporant skills needed for a successful professional career in the contemporary world: public speaking, research skills, thinking under pressure, and how to apply analytical approaches to complex problems.

Note: we do not accept international students for any of our middle school sessions.


2024 Middle School Debate Staff Members Include:

Check back closer to the start of camp for details on our 2024 staff

We will continue to add additional staff members as enrollment and availability dictate. Details are posted on additional staff members as they are confirmed and as we have complete biographic information available. Staff listing may not be fully up to date or reflect all hires to date.


2023 Middle School Debate Staff Members Included:


Upcoming Camps

1-Week Middle School Advanced Debate

The Advanced Middle School Debate session is designed for students who are currently active Speech & Debate competitors. Students in this program will work with instructors to enhance their knowledge of debate and work on advanced skills to improve their competitive success. Students will work to structure and argue a variety of different cases as well as learn how to research support for those cases. They will also participate in numerous practice debates where instructors will wor...

1-Week Middle School Debate Basics

The Stanford National Forensic Institute is again offering a program for middle school debaters. This camp will focus both on the style of debate at middle schools in the Bay Area, and the transition to high school debate events. This camp is designed to teach the fundamentals of debating.  We will focus more on individual workshops than on broad topic lectures and skills seminars, and will debate practice topics that are more accessible to the typical middle school student in orde...

1-Week Middle School Public Forum Workout

The 1-Week Middle School Public Forum Workout is designed for students who don't have the time to complete the full 2-Week Middle School Core Public Forum Program.  We recommend that students who are able choose to attend the 2-Week Middle School Core Public Forum Program.  Based on past requests, we recognize that some students are unable to fit the full program into their summer and offer this shortened program to allow more students to sharpen their Public Forum skills ...

2-Week Middle School Debate Experience

The Stanford National Forensic Institute is again offering a program for middle school debaters. This camp will focus both on the style of debate at middle schools in the Bay Area, and the transition to high school debate events. This camp is designed to teach the fundamentals of debating, covering material that is similar to that described for the 2-Week Parliamentary program, but in a slightly slower format that is tailored to Middle School students. We will focus more on individual w...

2-Week Middle School Public Forum Program

The 2-Week Middle School Debate program is designed to provide rising 7th and 8th graders with an academically appropriate session that focuses specifically on the Public Forum debate format.  The objectives are similar to the 2-Week Core Public Forum session that we offer for High School students.  For students unable to stay through the end of this 2-Week session, ...