David McKay Director, Voices Foundation My son John was passionate about high school debate, feeling it was (in his words) “the most valuable activity a high school student can partake in”. During his freshman year at college, he became chagrined with what he saw as “…[financial] barriers preventing individuals from fully actualizing their desire […]
Opinion
Check out our interview with VBI staffer Sekou Cisse. Sekou debated for Success Academy HS in NY and had 9 career TOC bids, winning the Byram Hills Invitational + RR, the Beltway fall classic, the Newark RR, the Berkeley RR, NYC Policy RR, Kandi King RR, the Harrison RR, and Harvard. Sekou currently attends and […]
Opinion, Resources
With NSDA Nationals quickly approaching in just over a week, we thought we’d sit down and ask the most recent NSDA National Champion, Natalie Schaller, about preparing and competing at NSDA Nationals. This continues from an interview we did last year with the 2016 and 2014 NSDA National Champions, which you can find here. Natalie […]
Opinion, Resources
One of the most frequently asked questions we get is, “What should I pack for camp?” We were asked this last year on our VBI AMA on Reddit (which you can find here) and we responded with a few different answers. “As for packing, you can find our packing list here. My personal suitcase for […]
Curriculum Corner, Opinion
Raffi Piliero debated for Harrison High School for 4 years, clearing at the TOC twice, and finishing as bid leader his senior year. He also won several national tournaments and several top speaker awards, and now debates for Georgetown University. Introduction: Previously, I’d written an article about what to do to get ready or the season […]
Opinion, Resources
Raffi Piliero debated for Harrison High School for 4 years, clearing at the TOC twice, and finishing as bid leader his senior year. He also won several national tournaments and several top speaker awards, and now debates for Georgetown University. Introduction: One of the first things that even the youngest of debaters realize upon giving […]
Opinion, Resources
Lawrence Zhou is a Lincoln-Douglas curriculum director at VBI and an assistant LD coach at The Harker School. He was the 2014 NSDA LD National Champion and currently attends the University of Oklahoma. Thank you to Marshall Thompson for his input. Introduction I take the following claim to be uncontroversial: “The educational value of novice […]
Opinion
Nina Potischman debated for Hunter College High School for four years, and is currently a freshman at Pomona College. Her senior year she was top seed, top speaker, and a finalist at the TOC, and won a number of national tournaments. Thank you to Maddy Stevens, SunHee Simon, and Marshall Thompson for their input. My […]
Opinion
Raffi Piliero debated for Harrison High School for 4 years, clearing at the TOC twice, and finishing as bid leader his senior year. He also won several national tournaments and several top speaker awards, and now debates for Georgetown University. Introduction: Nobody is perfect. There will never be a 1AR that makes 0 mistakes, an […]
Opinion, Resources
The average summary speech is not a summary; it is a brazen attempt to cover 18-20 minutes of content in two minutes while adding extra analysis. Under the average PF judge’s current expectations, the first summary speech is the hardest to deliver in all of debate. In fact, as I’ve written elsewhere, the natural limit […]
Briefly, Opinion, PF, Resources