Bergen Debate Club Summer Workshops (GR 6-8 in Fall 2023)

Morning / Early Afternoon / Late Afternoon Options

The Morning Program offers a series of modules for students to enhance their listening skills, form critical thinking directives, constructively work in teams, and participate in Model United Nations. All of the classes provide myriad opportunities for students to improve their public speaking prowess. We emphasize to our students how to think logically when faced with challenges and puzzles in an individual and collective setting. Students who have prior debate knowledge are placed into a competitive, yet less daunting environment. Both novice and experienced students will learn to apply their knowledge and theories in a completely new manner, and most importantly, they will have fun along the way!

The Early Afternoon Program provides a collective of modules for students to improve their presentation skills, expand their critical thinking capabilities, work harmoniously in teams, and participate in the Young Entrepreneurship Seminar. Each of the classes emphasize the significance of public speaking, and students are taught how to properly construct their rhetoric in a manner that encompasses logos, pathos, and ethos. Students who have prior experience in debate will be placed into a new setting that removes them from the strict format of argumentation, and so, both novice and experienced students start on an equal foundation. The games, puzzles, and challenges that students will face are foremost fun and students will understand how to analyze the shortcoming and excellence of both themselves and their classmates. ​

The Late Afternoon Program will run the same Young Entrepreneurial Seminar course as the early afternoon program. Students are not expected to attend both, and this offering is for students that may prefer the timing of late afternoon or have conflicts in the early afternoon.  

Students enrolled in the Full Day (morning and early afternoon) experience receive the best of both sessions with no overlap. All of the students will receive a half-hour break after the end of the Morning Session at Noon for thirty minutes before resuming at 12:30 PM for the second half of the Program. This cohort will be able to participate in a full-day’s worth of brain teasers, puzzles, and challenges that will test their listening comprehension, note-taking effectiveness, analytical capabilities, presentation skills, critical thinking prowess, and participate in both Model United Nation and the Young Entrepreneurship Seminar. Students will not repeat any lessons offered in both of the Sessions. All of our students previously enrolled in the Full Day experience have noted how much they’ve grown in our short time together, and this is reflected in their work ethic, public speaking, and characters. We are eager to join you on your journey to enjoying the Full Day experience and we know that every single day, regardless of the lessons that are synthesized, you will have fun each step of the way!