The Debate Camp for Summer 2007 has been cancelled.
Check back later for 2008 Camp Information.

Camp Overview
Are you looking for something to add to your college resume? Debate is a top extra-curricular activity that impresses colleges. Debate Camp aims to empower students with the valuable skills of effective communication, public speaking, leadership, and critical thinking. Debaters acquire lifetime skills.

The curriculum is designed for high school students (grades 9-12) of every experience level from novice to varsity. The camp offers Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Individual Events, and Oral Interpretation. Debate experience is required and LD experience is preferred. It is designed for practice and perfection.

You can have summer fun and learn at the Summer Debate & Oral Interpretation Camp at Mount Marty College.

Benefits

• Develop Communication Skills
• Develop Critical Thinking Skills
• Develop Leadership Skills
• Develop Persuasive Communication Skills
• Learn about the World Around You

Camp Location

The Debate Camp is held on Mount Marty College's beautiful campus in Yankton, South Dakota, overlooking the Missouri River near Lewis & Clark Lake. Campers stay overnight in the Whitby Residence Hall and events are held campus-wide. Mount Marty College offers excellent research facilities.

All campers are given a laptop computer to use during the camp. Mount Marty College is a wireless campus making research on the Internet easy and accessible. Research resources and opportunities are also available in the library. Depending on the time available, campers may take a research trip to the University of South Dakota.

Camp Format

Lincoln-Douglas Debate is a one-on-one debate in which one debater argues in favor of a given topic and the other argues against it. This debate emphasizes the use of logic and persuasion. Debaters will gain experience by learning the procedure to analyze Value Resolutions. The essential debate skills that will be reviewed are: four-step refutation method, VCR delivery conferences, basic instruction on LD theory, and tournament briefing procedures. There will be practice rounds, including rounds under a tournament situation.

Individual Events allow students to express themselves through interpretation. Participants will spend a week cutting and preparing a selection(s) for presentation. Practice rounds and VCR delivery conferences will be held. Each student will concentrate on two or more of the following areas for interpretation: Serious Prose, Drama, Poetry, Humorous, Non-Original Oratory, and/or Duo Interpretation.

Camp Activities

• Public Speaking
• Persuasive Communication
• Policy Research
• Logical Argumentation
• Resolutional Analysis
• Interpretation Techniques
• ...and much more

Camp Directors

Campers are taught and guided by experienced instructors:

Paul Harens (Director) is a triple Diamond NFL coach. During his 34 years of coaching, he has sent students to national tournaments in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Individual Events, and Student Congress. Oral Interpretation students from Yankton High School are consistently receiving Superior ratings at the SDHSAA Oral Interpretation Festival.

Mitch Gaffer is the Head Debate Coach at Huron High School. He has had students advance to the elimination rounds of the South Dakota State LD Debate Tournament for 17 of the last 20 years, winning 6 State LD Debate Championships. Mitch has qualified LD debaters to 10 different National Debate Tournaments, including a Top 20 finisher at the Indianapolis Nationals.

Leo Kallis is the LD coach at Yankton High School. Leo has Master's degrees in both English and History. His students have advanced to elimination rounds at the South Dakota State LD Tournament for the past 10 seasons. His debaters closed out the state tournament in 2001. He has qualified LD'ers to several NFL national tournaments.

Students benefit from a small student-to-teacher ratio and highly skilled instructors which allows campers to receive a quality education and camp experience. the average student to teacher ratio is 5:1. This leads to one-on-one attention and instruction.

Camp Fees

The camp fees include the camp program, lodging, most meals, a camp T-shirt, and evening activities. Students are asked to bring money for two meals off campus.

Contact Information

Paul Harens
(605) 665-1748
pharens@ysd.k12.sd.us

Mount Marty College
Campus Programming
1105 West 8th Street
Yankton, SD 57078-3724
(605) 668-1302
800-658-4552