UH Honors Debate Program Fosters the Next Generation of Debaters
By Julia Brown
The Honors Debate Program (HDP) is fostering the next generation of debaters in Houston — in summer 2024, HDP hosted the first annual Honors Debate Workshop(HDW), a two-week summer camp for high school students in the area. Organized in collaboration with Houston Urban Debate League (HUDL), HDW offered high school debaters of varying experience and skill levels a top-notch debate education.
HDW familiarizes young debaters with the many formats of competitive speech and debate. The camp was attended by 220 high schoolers, including 130 local students whose costs were shared by HUDL. Participants traveled from as far away as California and Washington, D.C. They spent two weeks on campus, staying in Cougar Village dorms while studying and researching in UH campus facilities.
HDW familiarizes young debaters with the many formats of competitive speech and debate. The camp was attended by 220 high schoolers, including 130 local students whose costs were shared by HUDL. Participants traveled from as far away as California and Washington, D.C. They spent two weeks on campus, staying in Cougar Village dorms while studying and researching in UH campus facilities.
Summer debate camps have become more critical than ever in keeping up the national debate tradition, and having a quality debate camp close to home is a huge positive for Houston high school students. HDW is the rare summer program that accepts novice debaters.
“Some summer programs are not like that,” says Eric Lanning, associate director of debate at the University of Houston (UH). “In most programs, participants must have experience with the format. We have a very different approach here. We had some novice labs with brand new people having their first debates, along with some people having their thousandth.”
The aim of the camp is to immerse participants in the world of competitive debate and help them develop the skills required to succeed in competition. On the camp’s first day, skill levels were assessed, and students were grouped by experience level into “Labs” of 12-15 individuals. Each Lab had its own Lab leader, an experienced debater and academic professional who worked closely with a group as a coach and guide.
In the first week, camp participants attended lectures, completed research assignments, and learned to prepare and cite evidence. In three rigorous sessions a day, debaters learned to collect and parse information and how to work in teams. In the second week, they applied the previous week’s lessons, practicing speeches and exploring competition strategies and tactics. The camp culminated in a mock competition.
Nine Abad, an Honors College senior and current president of the UH Honors Debate Team, was one of the 40 camp Lab leaders. “The biggest change I noticed in the students,” Abad said, “is how comfortable they become between week one and week two. They learn to grow out of their comfort zones.”
HDW weathered an additional unforeseen challenge during its inaugural year: Hurricane Beryl landed in Houston just as participants were arriving on campus. The category 1 storm flooded city streets and highways, damaging homes and knocking out power for millions of Houston residents.
Fortunately, UH’s main campus maintained power throughout the storm. Most camp participants and staff stayed on campus in Cougar Village; some commuters made the decision to remain on campus instead of traveling back and forth. “This weather event was very planned for,” Abad says. The camp staff meticulously discussed contingencies and maintained active, clear communications with everyone involved.
With everyone’s safety assured and the supplies plentiful, the atmosphere in the camp remained buoyant and positive. Abad noted the high schoolers’ enthusiasm and eagerness despite the weather. “Students opted into impromptu instructional sessions even after the first day’s instructional schedule was relaxed,” they said.
Despite the challenges, HDW was a resounding success. The camp staff and sponsors are already looking forward to next year’s event. “We’re really proud to host the camp,” says Heidi Appel, dean of the Honors College. “The Honors College – and University of Houston as a whole – recognize how debate develops skills that are important for anything students want to do, personally and professionally.”
To support HDW’s growth, the Dr. Bill English Scholars Fund has been established in honor of the UH Debate team’s founding professor. This fund aims specifically to reduce the cost for high school debaters around the country to attend HDW.
HDW’s success positively impacts UH’s own debate program and the culture of debate in Houston overall. The camp can also act as a recruiting tool for the University. As a UH alum and former competitive debater, Eric Lanning cites the strength of UH’s debate program as the primary reason he chose to attend as an undergraduate, and the primary reason he wanted to return as associate director of debate.
“We want the type of students that a program like this attracts,” Lanning says. “We want the talented debaters that grow up in Houston to come here. Programs like HDW are a magnet that will draw candidates that will succeed at the college level and beyond.”
