Stanford National Forensic Institute

The Stanford 4-Week Lab, an exciting new program at the Stanford National Forensics Institute, is designed for students seeking maximum preparation for their season opener. Beyond the SNFI experience, students use the unique end of summer positioning of the institute to thoroughly analyze the topic and arguments released by many of the major policy institutes throughout the country.

Highlights of the Stanford 4-Week Lab include:

In-Depth Negative Strategies v. Major Institute Affirmatives – Each student in the lab group will discuss and analyze the most popular affirmatives from institutes around the country. Instructors will provide intensive case specific lectures dissecting these affirmatives and instructing participants on how to effectively construct evolving negative strategies to use throughout the year. Each student will leave with a 1NC against each of the major affirmatives discussed. Furthermore, we INSIST that every student leave camp with a level of flexibility in argument selection that other major institutes ignore and thus all research/strategy will be discussed in the context of policy argumentation and relevant critical literature.

One on One Attention – Instead of the traditional method of lab organization where 40-50 students are lumped together with two or three instructors, we anticipate an 8:1 student to staff ratio, guaranteeing a substantial amount of face to face instruction for each participant. Moreover, our pedagogical model relies on a unique combination of instructor backgrounds: a full-time high school teacher, a nationally recognized researcher and coach, and in the near future, the inclusion of a top level college practitioner. We REFUSE to follow other institutes’ quest for instructor written evidence sets at the expense of the student’s education in debate.

Debates, Debates, and more Debates – All 4-Week students will receive a starter set at least a week prior to arriving at camp that they should have prepared to debate with on Day 1. Our unique 4-week curriculum leaves sufficient time for each student to have extensively critiqued debates by our entire staff. In other words, our professional approach requires that all practice rounds are observed by the staff listed for this lab rather than first year college students hired without your prior knowledge. Throughout the 4 week experience each student will participate in multiple debate formats, including stop-and-go, theory debates, mini argument debates, and full inter/Intralab debates with a 6 round tournament at the end of the 3-Week Institute. During the 4th week, students will finish their SNFI experience by competing in a round robin along with students in our Extended Week program.

4 Week Lab Staff Bios

Brian Manuel - Director of Policy Debate at Stanford University and assistant coach at College Preparatory School

Brian has been coaching debate for over a decade. He is widely recognized for unrivaled talent in creating and rebuilding programs from the bottom up. In 2008, he was awarded the Michael Bacon Coaching Award presented by Lexington High School for his success and commitment to the activity. Brian has coached for Harvard University, Lakeland High School, Chattahoochee High School, Cathedral Preparatory School, and Scranton High School. He has coached the champions of the 2003 Bronx Science, 2008 Barkley Forum, and the 2011 Meadows & USC tournaments. In addition, his teams have also reached the elimination rounds of virtually every major national tournament they've attended, including the 2008 & 2011 Tournament of Champions, and have had final round appearances at Wake Forest, Bronx Science, The University of Michigan, Lexington High School, the USC, Cal-Berkley, and the 2007 National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament. Also his students have participated in a number of national round robins including The Greenhill School, Georgetown University, The University of Michigan, Pace Academy, College Prep, and Harvard University. Previously, Brian has taught at the Kentucky National Debate Institute, with the Fellows program, Capitol Classic Institute, and the Georgetown Debate Seminar. This will be Brian's 6th summer at Stanford.

John Hines, Assistant Director of Debate, The College Preparatory School, Oakland, CA

John Hines is the Assistant Director of Debate at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California. John has built a solid reputation for innovative argument design and commitment to excellence in instruction during two decades of involvement in high school and college debate. As a college debater at The University of North Texas he reached late elimination rounds of every major tournament including Finals of Harvard in 2000. He also competed at the prestigious Dartmouth and Kentucky Round Robins, reached out-rounds of both CEDA and the NDT multiple times, and was a First-Round at Large Bid recipient to the NDT. John has coached teams into late out-rounds of nearly every major high school and college tournament including Finals of the Tournament of Champions in 2002 and the Finals of CEDA Nationals in 2004. Since John’s arrival on the California high school debate scene 4 years ago, his teams at College Prep have either won or reached the final round of every major TOC bid tournament on the West Coast. In addition to his competitive accolades, John has distinguished himself as an outstanding classroom instructor, he was awarded the prestigious Fund for Teacher’s & Marcus Foster Education Fund Fellowship, and he has participated in field study in China as a sponsored guest of the Chinese Ministry of Education and the US Department of State.

Martin Osborn, Assistant Coach at Wake Forest University, graduate of Missouri State University

Martin is in his second year coaching at Wake while he finishes his Master degree program and is a three-time qualifier to the NDT. He was top speaker and semi-finalist of the 2008 National Debate Tournament (NDT) and Cress Examination Debate Association (CEDA) Nationals, in addition to clearing at virtually ever major national tournament he's attended including Georgia State, Kentucky, Harvard, Wake Forest, both legs of the California Swing, Northwestern and was the top seed at Kentucky in 2006. He also has received top ten speaker awards at University of Southern California, Fullerton, University of Texas at Dallas, Georgia State, Wake Forest, and Kentucky, where he was awarded Top Speaker in 2007. Martin has previously worked at Kansas University Jayhawk Debate Institute, University of Missouri Kansas City Debate Institute, Missouri State Debate Institute, the Spartan Debate Institute and the University of Michigan 7 Week program.

Nick Watts, Assistant Coach at Harvard University, graduate of the University of Oklahoma

Nick is in his first year coaching at Harvard University, where his teams have cleared at every national tournament they've attended. In college, he was an extremely successful debater at the University of Oklahoma. Nick and his partner won the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) National Tournament in back to back years (2009 & 2010). Nick was also awarded the Top Speaker award at the 2010 CEDA National Championship. In addition, he has cleared at and received speaker awards at every national tournament he competed at his senior and was very clearly one of the top debaters in the country. Previously, Nick has taught at the Kansas University Jayhawk Debate Institute and University of Oklahoma Sooner Debate Workshop.