Stanford National Forensic Institute

The idea behind the Policy Four Week program is simple in concept, profound in effect. Debaters improve most by debating - especially when challenged by an experienced critic in a stop-and-go format, after which students redo rebuttals and receive extensive feedback. The Four Week Program is fully integrated with the Three Week program, but adds an additional week which focuses primarily on technique, practice rounds, and small group work sessions where students write frontlines and reorganize files. The Four Week Program engages in the kind of beginning of the season preparation enjoyed by the most competitive high school squads- but with our superb staff, a great student to staff ratio of 6:1 or better and a diverse peer group. Students are guaranteed to get at least 10 fully critiqued practice rounds in just one week, as well as multiple small group argument work sessions a diverse group of theory and topic seminars. The program is staffed by some of the top instructors from the Three Week SNFI policy camp, in addition to some top-notch guest instructors. Eligible Four Week students are welcome to apply to the Swing Lab for the first three weeks of the camp. Students from either the Core or Accelerated Programs are welcome to attend, as are students that have attended another rigorous camp in 2009.

• Nationally Renowned Faculty: The practice rounds and sessions will be conducted by experienced critics who will give valuable advice and guidance on improving your debate skills. All of the staff for the fourth week have a wealth of success at both the high school and collegiate level, and include top-notch current and former collegiate competitors. Directing the program is Corey Turoff, policy coach for the Stanford Debate Society’s intercollegiate policy debate program and Co-Director of Debate at Head Royce School.

• Accelerated Learning Environment: This exclusive program includes at least 10 critiqued debates and small working seminars on arguments of the student’s choice to help students get actual improvement during the course of the camp and to ready them for the competitive season. The end of the summer dates guarantee that students will be able to prepare for arguments as they have evolved over the course of the summer camp season. The program also features topic/theory seminars and rebuttal rework exercises all designed to teach mastery of of superior technique at all levels.

Fourth Week Only Option: To participate in the Fourth Week only Program, students must either attend the Stanford Three Week Program or attend another Policy camp of sufficient rigor earlier during the summer of 2009. Students planning to attend another policy camp earlier in the summer should contact our office to determine eligibility.

Director's Note

I wanted to take some time to inform you of what we have in store for this summer at SNFI Policy. My name is Corey Turoff, and I am returning for my fourth year as director. I debated at the University of Southern California as an undergraduate and since have coached debate for the past seven years, starting at Damien High School and Chaminade College Prep and am now finishing my fifth year at the Head Royce School in Oakland, California. Speaking on behalf of the staff and myself, I can say we think of ourselves as teachers first and debate coaches second. Our approach each summer involves thinking of interesting ways to use the topic as a vehicle for teaching students how to compete successfully during the year. The focus, then, is on critical thinking and strategy: taking well-reasoned argument and tying it to evidence researched by the students on any given topic, and enhancing that argument in later rebuttals with strong analysis and expert vision. We also teach that every argument matters, even the ones whose legitimacy you question. Students should walk out of the SNFI experience with a confidence that they can compete in every debate round, regardless of the arguments being made because ultimately, our goal is to instill a love for debate derived from being prepared for anything, not just the evidence produced by a certain lab on a certain topic.

To accomplish these goals, we employ an unbelievably qualified and mature staff with a cumulative century of debate experience. Each works as a professional debate coach in some capacity during the school year and has worked with/attended the SNFI before. For the past several summers, we have made a renewed commitment towards hiring staff with teaching quality in mind, rather than on the draw that “names” could bring to the institute. We believe that our staffing this year accomplishes that in spades! They represent one of the longer running continuous staffs at institutes across the country and a very tight-knit group of friends whom refuse to allow their competitive natures to come at the expense of your student’s education. Whether through our extreme disclosure requirements during the camp tournament or the occasional friendly intra-lab practice debate, opportunities to teach skills such as block writing and in-round prep usage are never missed.

Through our staff’s experience as teachers, SNFI Policy has created a very simply pedagogical approach to the institute: student-driven learning. The quality of our files is not determined by the quality of the evidence found by an instructor but rather by the students themselves. And while the staff does not cut evidence directly, we use an extensive back-reading system and group sorting process to ensure quality control. Students choose the topics for seminars, and each lecture ends with a lab meeting so that they each have a chance to ask questions while the information is still fresh in their minds. Moreover, the choice in lab program (Swing Lab, Sophomore Scholars, Accelerated Lab, and the Core Lab) gives students greater control over their camp experience than any other site in the country. And unlike other camps, the majority of rounds judged, including the tournament, are judged by full-time instructors rather than recently-graduated high school students. The few younger staff we do employ are former students of staff members whose teaching credentials are verified before they arrive on campus, and most importantly, are disclosed as members of the staff before final decisions are made, which we feel is a stark contrast to finding out from your students in September with whom they worked during the summer.

Thanks for you time and I look forward to working with your students in beautiful Palo Alto, California this July!

-Corey Turoff, Policy Division Director