Designed to help students build confidence in their public speaking skills, our Public Speaking Institute trains students in public speaking, logic, and rhetoric through an interactive and dynamic curriculum that encourages incremental progress through ongoing practice and exercise.
Over the course of the program, students will participate in three main courses: Debate, Persuasive Speaking, and an elective.
Debate
Learn the art of verbal combat! Students will learn how to construct persuasive positions, defend against and attack each other’s arguments, and cross-examine effectively. Students will debate a variety of age- and experience-appropriate topics, form teams, and pit themselves against their co-campers. Past debate topics have included: climate change, U.S. military adventures, and the legal drinking age.
Persuasive Speaking
This useful activity teaches students to craft and deliver convincing speeches. Students start by performing a number of pre-written speeches in order to learn delivery, timing, and intonation. When students display comfort with delivery, they will begin to construct speeches based on their interests. Students learn to choose topics, establish captivating introductions, organize speech content, and deliver compelling conclusions! The focus is on speaking in a natural voice, with few or no notes, rather than writing an essay and merely reading it out loud, the form of "public speaking" taught by most teachers. All students end the week by presenting a speech in front of a large group of fellow campers.
Electives: In the evenings, students will get to choose from at least two of the below elective speaking activities.
Public Speaking Institute students experience university life during their week on a college campus. Students live together in the dormitories, experience campus dining, and relax on campus with a wide array of sports and arts activities. Additionally, the camp will take one mid-week excursion to a local attraction, such as an amusement park or sports venue. The most recurrent comment made by students after camp is, “ I never knew I would have so much fun!”
Camps for rising 9th-12th graders have two options: