High School Outreach

High School Outreach Initiative EST 2021

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped out with our first sessions for the How to be the QDU High School Outreach Program.

The QDU is currently offering FREE seminars and rounds held by competitive debaters from Queen’s University multiple times per month with options for beginner and advanced debaters!

Email us at critic@queensdebatingunion.ca to be added to the mailing list or if you have any questions/concerns.

As we prepare for our next session, we would love to hear feedback from you: https://forms.gle/YeWzeEEryY7Z6wNc6

About Our Program

Many high school students often resort to external places like debate coaching or debate summer camps in order to find places to engage in debate and improve. While we fully support these external platforms, the Queens Debating Union also recognizes that these opportunities are limited to those who are willing to spend the time and money to find those platforms or to those who have pre-existing connections within the debate community. This year we thought it would be beneficial to the high school debate community if we were able to provide a space free of charge in which high school students could learn from and debate outside of just their usual club spaces and engage with current university debaters.

We have decided to pair up with the Speech and Debate Canada Foundation to provide weekly online debate sessions to students across Canada! Huge thanks to them for funding and supporting us on our journey to make debate as accessible as possible!

Commonly asked questions:

Are these sessions going to be separated by debate experience?

Yes! As previously mentioned, each week the session is going to be tailored to a specific “debate level” based on experience. One week it will be for beginners, the next week it will be for intermediates, and the following will be for advanced. The seminars and additional programs we run in the sessions before rounds will still be accessible to everyone. Anyone will be able to show up and watch if they would still like too, but the rounds themselves will be closed to those who sign up on the form beforehand and belong to the designated “debate level” (as in only beginner level debaters would be debating in the rounds hosted at the beginner debate sessions). 

What styles of debate will be covered (i.e. BP, CP, etc.)?

We’re going to be focusing these sessions on BP to start. If there is interest in covering other formats like CP or CNDF we would definitely be open to running some seminars or rounds that are more suited to those other formats.

What kind of material will be covered in the seminars?

All kinds! We’re going to be running seminars on everything debate related from strategy i.e comparatives, weighing, case construction and analysis to content seminars on specific areas of focus in debate like international relations, economics, sports, really anything that could be turned into a debate motion. If anyone is interested in a seminar on something specific, we would be more than happy to hear it out and run one if we feel qualified enough to do so.