GDI Novice Program

Students: Are you looking for a challenge that combines the intellectual atmosphere of a graduate class with the competitive environment of organized sports?

Parents and Teachers: Do your students like to argue and you are looking for some way to positively channel those emerging advocacy skills?

Welcome to the Gonzaga Debate Institute Novice Program. The GDI is pleased to offer a lab tailored to the needs of beginning and inexperienced debaters. Camp is becoming more and more important to a students competitive success and its never too early to begin learning the fundamentals. This lab experience will be designed for students with little to no experience in debating. The Novice program will focus primarily on teaching students the fundamentals of academic debate, while also preparing them for competition on the 2008-2009 National Forensics League Topic. Although they'll learn argument in the context of this topic, the skills gained will certainly be applicable regardless of topic.

The Novice Program is directed by James Roland. James has 15 years of experience coaching and debating in both high school and college. James earned his BA at Southern Illinois University and an MA at Georgia State University. James is currently the Director of the Atlanta Urban Debate League and coaches at Emory University. Assisting James is Tiara Naputi. Tiara enjoyed a successful debate career at Emporia State University and is currently earning her PhD at the University of Texas.

Debate is an invaluable experience and students will leave the lab with all the fundamentals to effectively compete in the ranks of high school debate. Without a doubt you will win a lot of trophies as a results of your GDI education. But more importantly, you'll leave GDI with a set of skills that you simply can't attain in the traditional classroom setting. Debate will teach you not only important critical thinking, analysis, speaking, advocacy, and research, but it will also expose you to a wide variety of topics including philosophy, government, science, economics, and sociology to name a few.

The skills learnt through debating are many:

1. Confidence to speak in front of a room full of people

2. The Ability to present an argument persuasively

3. Vision to understand that there are two sides to most arguments

4. Respect for others, to let them have their say

5. The sense of timing, to prioritize your material and speak in a given time period

6. Structure to order your thoughts, to introduce, develop and summarize your points

7. General and specific knowledge of many current affairs topics, learnt through research and debate

8. Flexibility to react quickly to new ideas, and to remain unflustered in crises

There is little doubt that students who participate in high school debate are more prepared for college and life in general. We invite you to attend the GDI and explore what debate can do for you.