Hello All,

We are happy to announce that registration will be opening this week for NSD 2015! We will be returning to the University of Minnesota again this summer! Below, we have included updated explanations for our third and fourth week curricula!

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at nsdebatecamp@gmail.com

Third Week
All too often, students leave the third week of debate camp having done some extra practice, but without much concrete to show for it. Extra practice is a valuable aspect of a third week, but it becomes significantly more valuable when it is coupled with a curriculum that guides students to produce preparatory materials that they will actually want to use during the season. This is the guiding thought that informs our curriculum for the third week.
In our third week, each student will be able to choose two “special topics” preparation labs that fit their needs. This will allow students to identify areas of debate where they would most like assistance improving their preparation before the start of the season. For example, a student might choose to focus on preparing for Kantian framework debates. In this case, the student can expect that in their preparation lab they will write and solidify their understanding of a few different types of Kantian framework, write detailed answers to common Kantian framework justifications, write detailed responses to these common answers, and so on.
In each of their preparation labs, students will be able to work intensively with expert faculty in order to produce preparation that they will use during the season. Preparation labs will be small groups led by faculty members that specialize in the given topic area, and they will meet at length each day so that students have ample help gaining mastery in their chosen topic areas.
Each student will leave the week not only having gained in-depth knowledge of their topics, but also having prepared files that they have perfected with guidance and feedback from faculty on each of the two areas of debate of their choosing. This intensive period of focus means students will get the chance to gain a competitive edge that would normally take months of coaching to achieve.
In addition to their preparation labs, students in the third week will be sorted into drill groups that focus on their technical skills. These drill groups, in conjunction with practice rounds, will help students improve their technical skills and solidify their understanding of how to execute the preparation they are working on in their “special topics” labs.
Topic Preparation Week
Our topic preparation week begins with the release of the 2015 September/October topic. Students will thus have a week to focus intensively on preparing for the upcoming topic. With unique access to and attention from a wide range of faculty members, this is a great way for students to jumpstart their preparation of the new topic.
At the beginning of the week, each student will be sorted into a “team” which will be led by a senior staff member who coaches one of the top teams in the country; each “team” which will be focused on teaching students how to prepare a topic for debates at the highest level, following the practices and standards set by the most successful teams on the circuit. Each “team” will produce high quality cases, blocks and other resources so that students will leave ready to compete.
In addition to their “teams”, each student will select elective groups that approach the topic from a particular vantage point of interest to them. For example, a student might want extra focus on critical approaches to the topic, or they might want to spend additional time preparing for topicality debates on the topic. Each elective group will be led by an instructor who specializes in the subject area of the elective.
Students will also have daily practice rounds on the new resolution, so that they can continue to solidify their in-round skills, become comfortable debating the new topic by overcoming typical beginning-of-topic hurdles, and hone the topic-specific positions and strategies that they will be working on over the course of the week.

Finally, Below is our initial staff list! As a note, We endeavor to hold ourselves to a high standard of accuracy for the faculty that we have announced below: everyone we list has given us meaningful confirmation that they are working at NSD.

Confirmed Senior Staff:

Aracelis Biel

Chris Castillo

Daniel Moerner

Tom Evnen

Mark Gorthey

Michael Harris (TX)

Ellen Hense

Ben Koh

Jessica Levy

Terrence Lonam

Jeff Liu

Daiya Massac

Daisy Massey

Emily Massey

Dave McGinnis

Leah Shapiro

JP Stuckert

Christian Tarsney

Confirmed First Year Staff:

Varun Bhave

Michael Bogaty

David Branse

Sophia Caldera

Isis Davis-Marks

Rahul Gosain

Amos Jeng

Carolyn Lau

Ben Laufer

Gina Scorpiniti

Alex Yoakum

Joe Zaghrini