Thoughts

The future of debate, and in particular in Minnesota, looks very promising. The progress of the students during camp was tremendous. With this being my first year as a lab leader at a camp, I was not sure what to expect. In the end, my experience teaching the students was very rewarding. Despite a grueling 8AM-11PM day, the students would come eager to learn everyday until the end. During lectures, they were very attentive and took great notes. They asked questions if they did not understand the concepts and participated in group assignments. During the research portion, it was hard to sit in a library for many hours straight, but the students finished all the work that was asked of them.

The most impressive part of the students’ work was in the time prior to the tournament. The effort that all the teams put in writing blocks and preparing to debate in their rounds was terrific.

I had a great first experience as a lab leader and hope to come back again next summer. Most of all, the parents and the coaches of the students should be proud of all the hard work. I look forward to seeing and judging the students at tournaments this year.

-Aneesh Sohoni

End of the 4th Week

The fourth week option with the fast track/extension week and the kritik week is over. This was the first year of the institute and all students felt it was successful. Both camps ended with a five round tournament. Second place at the Fast Track Institute was Kyle and Ben (Rosemount MN). First was Kristen (Fargo Shanley ND) and Jason (Stoneman FL).

The kritik institute ended with Joe (Moorhead MN) and Amy (Bloomington MN) at second and Rebecca (San Dieguito CA) and Michelle Stanley (Moorhead MN) in first.

More thoughts about camp after the staff recovers from sleep deprivation.

Students Opinion of Camp

Between 2006 and 2007 students opinion of CDI improved by .2 points. Students are asked a set of survey questions at the end of the first week and at the end of the third week. Students are asked to rate their experience on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being the highest. When asked the question: "Overall, I am satisfied with my experience at the Concordia Debate Institute" the average student score was 4.78 - a .2 increase from 4.58 last year. In addition scores on fun, learning, lab leaders and other areas significantly increased. In fact the only category that received overall bad reviews was the question: "I would pay an extra $100 in room and board for air conditioned units." That had a reduction in responses. It probably had to deal with the better weather this year. More comments and stats to come at a later point.

4th Week: Busy Start, Decent Food

The fourth week option at the Concordia Debate Institute has started. On saturday the students watched a staff debate and received evidence. The fast track students had a practice round, drills, evidence distribution, topic specific Africa lecture and topic specific topicality lecture. Today they have attended sessions on micro and macro level refutation and topicality. They will finish their day with disads and another practice round. Kritik Institute students have had lectures on Post-Semiotics, Zizek (Revolution), Zizek (Lacan), Neo-Liberalism, and Borders. They have also had two practice debates. The food yesterday was great with subs then Chinese. The new Anderson Dining Room is open on Concordia's campus and the debate students were the first to test out the new facilities and the students loved the food! More to come tomorrow hopefully!

End of Camp

It is the end of camp. The three week students will be departing soon and the fourth week students arriving. The last day included a banquet for the students, a camp video and the highlight for some students - the kernel auction. After judging several rounds, debating 24 debates, getting 10 drills, listening to countless teaching sessions and doing several practicums most of the students are tired, but happy. The staff will certainly miss our students. Keep reading the blog for updates throughout the year on how the students are doing. You can also find out fourth week information, see more pictures from the three week camp and find out how to get digital copies of evidence.

Quarters, Semi, Finals

Quarters
David/Michael d. Dru/Tiffany, 3-0
Joe/Michelle d. Erik/Travis, 2-1 Sodeberg Sits
Annie/Hannah d. Nick/Tom, 2-1 Kernels Sit
Amy/Maddie d. Justin/Reka, 3-0

Semifinals
David Michael def. Amy Maddie 3-0
Joe Michelle def. Annie Hannah 3-0

Finals
Joe Michelle def. David Michael 2-1 (Kernels Sit)

JV Finals
Shruti and Sam def. Lillian and Kristyna 3-0

Speaker Awards

1. Travis Panneck (Eagan)
2. Erik Walker (Henry Sibley)
3. Joe Skaggs Jr. (Moorhead)
4. Tom Madsen (Blake)
5. Dru Svoboda (Wayzata)
6. Michelle Stanley (Moorhead)
7. Amy Anderson (Bloomington Jefferson)
8. Trevor Aufderheide (Edina)
9. David Kang (Blake)
10. Shruti Satish (Wayzata)

Clearing Teams

The following teams clear to quarters. Two teams in JV Finals.
These teams clear:
OlinMS AM
OlinMS DM
OlinMS KL (JV Finals)

IversFS DT
IversFS ET
IversFS SS (JV Finals)

OlinCJK AH
OlinCJK NT

IversHMM JR
IversHMM JM

Round 5 and Records

Round 5:
Affirmative Negative Judge
IversFS ET IversHMM JR Mapes, Michael
IversFS SS IversHMM AM Tracy
IversHMM AL BYE
IversHMM SY OlinMS AT Bonitto
OlinCJK AH IversFS DT Soderberg
OlinCJK IS IversFS AD Freudenheim
OlinCJK JR OlinMS KL Oxborough
OlinCJK NT OlinMS AM Singh, Yatesh
OlinMS DM IversHMM JM Nikolic

Through 4
4-0:
OlinCJK NT
OlinMS AM

3-1
IversFS DT
OlinCJK AH
IversFS ET
IversHMM JR
OlinMS DM

2-2
IversHMM JM
IversFS SS
OlinMS KL

1-3
IversHMM SY
OlinMS AT
IversFS AD
OlinCJK IS
OlinCJK JR

0-4
IversHMM AL

Round 4

Affirmative Negative Judge
IversFS AD OlinMS DM Maxwell
IversFS ET OlinCJK AH Shawley
IversFS SS BYE
IversHMM AM OlinCJK IS Oxborough
IversHMM JM IversFS DT Freudenheim
IversHMM JR OlinCJK JR Soderberg
IversHMM SY OlinMS AM Tracy
OlinMS AT OlinCJK NT Nikolic
OlinMS KL IversHMM AL Rognlie

Round 3

Affirmative Negative Judge
IversFS DT OlinMS AT Tracy
IversFS SS IversHMM SY Rognlie
IversHMM AL IversFS ET Nikolic
OlinCJK AH OlinMS KL Maxwell
OlinCJK IS BYE
OlinCJK JR IversHMM JM Simmons
OlinCJK NT IversFS AD Soderberg
OlinMS AM IversHMM AM Shawley
OlinMS DM IversHMM JR Freudenheim

Team List

Team List (First Names were used)
IversFS DT - Dru Svaboda and Tiffany Ly
IversFS AD- Ashley McVay and Danny Milavetz
IversFS SS- Shruti Satish and Samantha Cusack
IversFS ET- Erik Walker and Travis Panneck

IversHMM AM- Anthony Nixon and Melissa Waudby
IversHMM AL- Alex Rosenblum and Lindsey Folsom
IversHMM JR- Justin Farber and Reka Fink
IversHMM SY- Sharanya Srinivasan and Yucen Yin
IversHMM JM- Joe Skaggs Jr., Michelle Stanley

OlinCJK AH- Annie Martin and Hannah Nelson
OlinCJK IS- Ian Fox and Savanna Mehl
OlinCJK JR- Jeremiah Swisher and Rob Patchen
OlinCJK NT- Nick Khatri and Tom Madsen

OlinMS AM- Amy Anderson and Madeline Christensen
OlinMS KL- Kristnya Walling and Lillian McBride
OlinMS AT- Alexis Carpenter and Trevor Aufderheide
OlinMS DM- David Kang and Michael Cherkassky

Children of the Corn Tournament

The Children of the Corn Tournament begun this morning. Round 2 is currently underway. Here are the pairings:

Round 1:
Affirmative Negative Judge

IversFS DT IversHMM AM Sternhagen, Rachel

IversHMM AL OlinMS DM Bonitto

IversHMM JR BYE

OlinCJK AH IversFS AD Rognlie

OlinCJK IS IversFS SS Maxwell

OlinCJK JR OlinMS AT Sternhagen, Fred

OlinCJK NT IversHMM JM Faltesek, Dan

OlinMS AM IversFS ET Kirkeide

OlinMS KL IversHMM SY Sohoni

Round 2:
Affirmative Negative Judge

IversFS AD IversHMM AL Oxborough

IversFS ET OlinMS KL Mapes, Meggie

IversFS SS OlinMS AM Soderberg

IversHMM AM OlinCJK JR Rognlie

IversHMM JM OlinCJK IS Tracy

IversHMM JR OlinCJK NT Shawley

IversHMM SY IversFS DT Nikolic

OlinMS AT OlinCJK AH Freudenheim

OlinMS DM BYE

Almost Tourny Time!

The day before the tournament has arrived and the students are working hard to get ready to debate. In the morning, the students heard a few last lectures including diversity in debate. In the afternoon, the students are finishing writing their last few blocks and getting in more drills in an effort to be the champion at the Children of the Cob Tournament that will take place Wednesday through Saturday. Each team will get to debate 7 prelim rounds and then there will be break rounds to follow.

Tonight, the students will listen to a demonstration debate. This round will feature Eric Short and Meggie Mapes on the affirmative and Kristi Cronin and Dan Faltesek on the negative. It will be good for the students to see how much progress they have made with their flowing from the first demonstration round to the second.

The students will hopefully get to bed early tonight and be rested for the tournament. It has been a great two and a half weeks, and the last half week is sure to bring more fun!

Student Comments

What are the students saying about Concordia Debate Institute? After Week 1 students completed a mid-term evaluation form about the camp to help gauge our teaching presentations, philosophy and schedule. The students said:

"lectures are really good"
"the amount of one on one time with the faculty is fantastic and the lectures are very helpful"
"I have the individual attention I can't get elsewhere"
"making the learning environment fun and open"
"focusing on specific needs of students based on experience"

Were there any complaints? Of course. The students all said they wanted more sleep. Two students said they wanted more debate rounds. I would like to see if they still think that by the end of week three 24 debate rounds later :)

Looks like the students have been enjoying things!

Monday, Week 3 - Debates and Lab

Today students engaged in two more practice rounds between labs. This afternoon and evening students will work on developing, writing and enhancing blocks. They will also get another set of drills in. The debate tournament starts on Wednesday so students are hurriedly preparing for what look to be some great debates. By the end of the week students will of had 24 debates.

Mall, Guest Lecture, Tournament Prep

West Acres Mall provided the students an opportunity to have a relaxing Saturday evening. The students went to the mall and ate food and then went shopping afterward. After an hour or so of shopping, the students headed to the movie theater to either watch Harry Potter, or Evan Almighty. The students then came back to the dorm area and hung out for a little bit before going to their floors and in their rooms.

Today, the students slept in and then were able to hear a guest lecture from Edina debate coach, Chris Stinson. Chris was here to give the “even-if” lecture to the students. After the lecture, the students are going to debate in a practice round. Once that is complete, the students will go to their labs and work on drills and get ready for the tournament for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Weekend; Day 1

This morning the students were able to choose a series of lectures that they wished to attend. The first set of lectures that the students got to listen to was politics, framework, and answers to consult counterplans. The second series included hegemony, answers to multiple perms, and biopolitics. In each series of lectures, the students had the opportunity to attend two of the three lectures.

In the afternoon, students received a large set of evidence that they cut during this past week. They were then able to read all of the evidence and put start writing blocks for those positions. At 3:45 they will do a practice round before heading off to Olin 124 to listen to the annual Ed Schiappa lecture.

At night, the students will go to the mall and to watch a movie.

Last Day of Research

Today is the last day of research for this wave of assignments. Most of the labs are on pace to finish on time and turn in their assignments. The kids' progress in cutting cards through the week has been very noticeable. Some of the staff may be treating their children to ice cream at Dairy Queen for their efforts.

Tonight, the students will be hearing lectures regarding strategies. For example, they will hear a lecture on negative strategies followed by a lecture on answering negative strategies.

Practice Rounds on Kritiks

The students had their second practice round in which they were forced to go for a kritik this morning. The students got to debate on the affirmative and negative. This gave them the opportunity to think about the kritik from both sides of the debate.

After lunch, the students are in the library once again to start finishing their research assignments. The students will also be drilling with their lab leaders. Most of the students will probably receive instruction on how to debate the kritik since they have only had a couple of rounds of experience doing so.

Tonight, the students will have another practice round followed by another set of drills. This week has been a lot of hard work, but the payoff will be a hardworking, but enjoyable weekend.

The Research, Drills, and Rounds Continue

In the morning, the students heard a few more lectures on kritiks. While their knowledge of these arguments is very raw, we will increase their ability to debate with them in a practice round we have later tonight. As a requirement of the practice round, the kids will have to go for a critical argument of their choice so that both the affirmative and negative team get practice debating the arguments.

In the afternoon, the students are continuing to do research on the files that their lab leaders assigned to them. While researching can be strenuous, the students are doing a good job of working hard and continuing to find useful articles to use in our debate rounds. Camp is half way over, and the staff are happy with the progress the debaters are making.

Kritiks and Research Deadlines

The students today were introduced to kritiks. For most of them, this was their first encounter with the argument. They will go through a series of lectures on the topic throughout the week.

The rest of the day today is devoted toward drills and practice rounds. The students have a 11 P.M. evidence deadline to finish doing all of the research that is necessary to finish their files. A lot of time will be spent in the library and in the labs organizing the work.

As the weather heats up, so does the students work ethic!

Monday, Week 2: Research and Goodbye Chris

After an eventful day yesterday of topicality, bad weather and delicious pitas and pizza the students are back on the research train today. This morning students learned about the techniques and nuances of constructing affirmatives. They then went to a lecture that discussed standard block writing approaches and standard answers to have on blocks.

For the rest of the day students are back in the library or computer labs researching and developing the starter positions. Tuesday night is evidence deadline number 2 with counterplans, affirmatives and disads needing to be completed. New assignments start on Wednesday.

Goodbye Chris: Chris McDonald, Director of Debate at Eagan High School and MDTA President, will leave us after a week at CDI. His planned departure has him heading down south for a speech camp in Florida. We appreciate all the hard work Chris has done over the last week giving approximately 15 teaching sessions, working with students, watching rounds, running the Bob Groven Tournament and generally being the predictable asset that he is to the institute. Thanks, Chris!

Topicality Sunday- Another fun day!

Last night, the students and staff went to dairy queen and enjoyed a few hours of bowling. As usual, the staff defeated the students in the bowling competition. The students seemed to enjoy the social event and looked ready for a night off after a week of hard work.

The students were able to sleep in until 11:30 today. Once they woke up, they ate lunch, and began another grueling day of lectures. The focus for today’s lectures is on topicality. The students are learning about picking definitions, writing violations, standards, voters, and abuse versus interpretations.

The students also got to hear a demonstration of a topicality round including the 1NC, 2AC, and 2NC speeches. The students will then use the flow of this debate in their first practicum to give a 1ar on the topicality violation they heard.

Later at night, the students will have yet another practice debate. The students seem a little revitalized after a fun night of bowling last night and look ready to learn again today.

Bob Groven Results

The top five teams were (in order):

IversFS PW (Travis Panneck and Erik Walker)
OlinSM KC (David Kang and Michael Cherkaasky)
IversHHM SS (Michelle Stanley and Joe Skaggs)
IversHHM YW (Yucen Yin and Melissa Waudby)
IversHHM FF (Justin Farber and Reka Fink)


The final round was a PW vs. KC with a 3-0 decision for PW on the affirmative. There are pictures on flickr.

Round 4: A judges perspective from within the round

I am currently sitting in one of the 2-0 debates between Trevor Aufderheide (Edina) and Amy Anderson (Jefferson) vs. Travis Panneck (Eagan) and Erik Walker (Sibley). Trevor and Amy are affirmative running water - the plan text is the USFG should substantially increase its public health assistance by fully funding local water initiatives and rural hydraulic projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The negative strategy includes ASPEC (as the 2ac pointed out not likely a round winner in front of me - but we will see), T Public Health Assistance (not just funding), Japan CP, Japan DA, Over-confidence, Bush Bad - Free Trade Bad (which by the way - Bush is never bad before noon - only after) and case. There are pictures on flickr for your viewing pleasure. The negative block kicks out of the Japan Disad, CP and T. There is a time allocation problem: mainly - they spent more than 1 minute talking about ASPEC in the block. For the parents reading out there - this argument is like watching paint dry or mowing the lawn for more than an hour. Actually that is a bad analogy because at least once the paint is dry or the lawn is complete you are left satisfied. Other than that argument - the students have done a fantastic job, at least in this round, arguing for their positions. I end of voting negative on a conceded inherency argument that says that the US is already providing water assistance. The affirmative drops this and the analysis that says a dropped inherency arugment is a stock issues and reason to vote against the affirmative first. Since the affirmative drops both it is relatively hard to vote affirmative.


Will Hailer

Game 1/Round 1

Game one of the student/staff basketball competition was won by the staff (as expected). Two point shots were counted as one point and three point shots were counted as two. The students took a 5-1 lead in the first half. The staff had way too many turnovers and couldn't make shots. The tide began to turn in the second half as the staff chipped away at the lead and eventually tied the game at 5-5. At that point, Will grabbed the rebound under the basket and kicked the ball out to Aneesh who drained a three point basket. From there on out, the staff remained in control and finished with a 12-9 victory, outscoring the students 11-4 in the 2nd half. The players on the staff team included Aneesh Sohoni (6 points), Will Hailer (3 points), Eric Short (1 point), Kristin Cronin (1 point), Heath Marso (1 point), and Jason Johnson. There will be more re-matches to come.

The 2nd annual "Bob Groven" tournament has begun. This is the first of two tournaments tha the students take part in.

Here is Round 1 pairings.

IversFS (Patchen/McVay) v. Ivers HHM (Fink/Farber) Mapes, Michael
Ivers HHM (Rosenblum/Folsom) v. OlinSM (Anderson/Aufderheide) Bonito
Ivers HHM (Stanley/Skaggs) v. OlinSM (Kang/Cherkassky) Oxborough
Ivers HHM (Waudby/Yin) BYE
OlinCJK (Fox/Milavetz) v. IversFS (Cusack/Satish) Marso
OlinCJK (Khatri/Nelson) v. Ivers FS (Ly/Svoboda) Short
OlinCJK (Madsen/Martin) v. IversHHM (Nixon/Srinivasan) Rognlie
OlinSM (Carpenter/Christensen) v. OlinCJK (Swisher/Mehl) Faltesek, Daniel
OlinSM (Walling/McBride) v. IversFS (Panneck/Walker)Mapes, Meggie

Codes:
IversFS = Faltesek/Sohoni
IversHHM = Hailer/(Marso)Heath/Mapes(Meggie)
OlinCJK = Cronin/Johnson/Kirkeide
OlinSM = Short/Mapes (Michael)

Basketball, CPs and Bob Groven

Students have been in teaching presentations all morning and afternoon about counterplans. The structure of CDI has changed (for those of you familiar with the old structure) so the students spend time learning about positions in one large chunk rather than spread out over a few days. Dispersed throughout teaching presentations are practicums so that students get more hands on skills with students of the same level working on their new knowledge for one segment of counterplans or disads or whatever the specific session is about. After spending most of the day learning about counterplans, students will get to here from the lab leaders about judging paradigms.

This afternoon during alternative use time is the first student vs. staff basketball games. The staff is expecting to win. If yesterday's push-up challenge is any indication it will be a decisive victory (Aneesh Sohoni beat Trevor A. from Edina by at least 25 push-ups in a 60 second timeframe).

Tonight is the start of the 2nd Annual Bob Groven Tournament. This is a four round tournament with a final round judged by Chris McDonald, Fred Sternhagen and the kernels. Guest judges are coming in for what looks to be some fairly decent debates since students have had the evidence for a week. This tournament has been dedicated to Bob Groven for his years of service to the educational opportunities and curriculum design at the Concordia Summer Debate Institute.

Check out the push-up contest pictures over at flickr. There should be some basketball pictures sometime tomorrow.

Research!

Now that the students know a lot about disadvantages, it’s time to do research. Today, all of the students will be focusing on specific disadvantage areas on which to do their research. The Hailer/Mapes/Marso lab will be focusing on Japan, the Faltesek/Sohoni lab will be researching Africa, the Cronin/Johnson/Kirkeide will focus on overconfidence/hegemony arguments, and finally the Mapes/Short lab will work on China. The evidence deadline for the research is at 11 P.M. tonight. The kids will be using the research skills they learned yesterday to cut many cards.

Throughout the day, all the lab leaders will be doing their second drill with the students. Every student will finish camp with a minimum of 8 drills from their lab leaders.

The library will be our home for the next 12 hours.

The 2nd Annual "Bob Groven" Tournament will begin tomorrow at 7:45 P.M. The students will each debate a minimum of four rounds after which two teams will debate in the final round on Saturday.

Day Three

Today includes another grueling day of lectures and debates. This morning, the debaters started out by going to the library. Students were introduced to library resources and given presentations on researching. In addition, the students received a lecture on writing blocks and were shown examples of blocks that the staff has written for their own use. After lunch, the students were presented with a series of disadvantage lectures including impacts and turns, specific vs. generic links, weighing disads, and kritiking disads. The beginner students will also receive lectures on advanced research and card cutting. This will help them with the research aspect of debate.

Throughout the day, the advanced students have also been working on cutting a fiscal discipline disadvantage. They have approximately three hours to do the research and put the cards together in file form. It’s a lot to do, but they are working hard.

After some free time and supper, the students will do a practicum on disadvantages to put together everything they have learned about them through the day. Once that is done, they will hear an introductory presentation to counterplans.

Later that night, the students will have intra-lab practice rounds. After that, it will be time to call it a night.

Pictures From The Institute

Click on the link to the right to see pictures from the Institute.

Demonstration Debate and Day Two

A little more on the demonstration debate that took place yesterday.

The affirmative team of Michael Mapes and Dan Faltesek ran an affirmative dealing with the AIDS problem in Africa. Michael read the first affirmative constructive that had two advantages. The first advantage stated that those who have AIDS are stigmatized. They argued that the stigma is what prevents people from seeking help for their medical condition. The second advantage dealt with women’s rights. In Africa, men often refuse to wear condoms and thus the spread of HIV is increased. Also, women who seek HIV/AIDS testing are often subjected to violence. Due to this, the affirmative presented a plan to change the prevention component of PEPFAR to a culturally sensitive and comprehensive program including: Routine and Diagnostic HIV testing, education on condom use, gender equity, and microbicides.

The negative team of Aneesh Sohoni and Meggie Mapes ran four off case arguments and case arguments. Aneesh read Topicality, U.S. Politics, African Union Counterplan, and a Ghana Politics net benefit. He also read arguments on the solvency and stigma portion of the case.

Dan rebutted these arguments in his 2AC with a variety of creative arguments.

Meggie rose to give her 2NC and argued for the AU Counterplan and Ghana disadvantage. Aneesh went for politics and case arguments in the 1NR.

After this portion of the debate, there was a 15 minute break in which the students went with their lab leaders and had a discussion of the debate thus far, and discussed what would be good strategies for the affirmative and negative teams to go for in the end. This was very educational for the students as they were able to ask clarifying questions about the round and also forced them to think strategically about the rest of the round.

In the 1AR, Michael gave a splendid rebuttal in which he extended a combination of offense and defense on the arguments that were still left in the round.

After discussion with her partner Aneesh, Meggie decided to go for the AU Counterplan and Ghana net benefit in her 2NR. She argued that the counterplan solves just as well as case and that the permutation cannot capture the net benefit of Ghana.

While Dan was supposed to go for defensive arguments in the staged debate, he went for a little too many good arguments in the end. His extension of the permutation on the counterplan helped sway the kernels vote for the affirmative. The kernels voted 24-10 in favor of the affirmative.

All in all, the main goal of having an educational round was achieved. The debaters spoke at an adequate pace and the kernels were engaged through the round.

Today the debaters are going to hear a series of lectures on argumentation models and flowing. Later tonight they will have one more practice round before they go with their lab leaders to work on specific drills to improve their speaking.

More to come later!

Registration and Day One

Registration was successful. The students were excited, and parents asked some great questions as the students moved in. There was a 60% chance of rain on Sunday according to the Fox News Weatherman, and current lab leader, Dan Faltesek. Luckily we were able to avoid it.

Day 1 has come and gone faster than you could say the word "debate." Students under went the normal diagnostics Sunday to help place them in teaching presentations, practicums, and lectures. The students lab pairings and week one schedule are on the Concordia Debate Institute homepage: http://summerdebate.cord.edu. In the morning the students heard back to back topic lectures with a background on Africa, a "words on this years resolution" presentation discussing the nuances between different terms, and a topic specific lecture. A few logistical presentations were given and then the students were off to labs to meet and greet, read evidence, and prepare for the first practice round.

Dinner was delicious, and the first practice round was fun and challenging. The students proceeded to watch a demonstration debate between Michael and Dan vs. Aneesh and Meggie (all staff members). The students voted 24-10 for Michael and Dan even though Aneesh and Meggie were "supposed" to win. (Apparently going for defense means going for a permutation in the 2ar that claims to solve for the terminal link to the disad and all the case attacks. Dan is not good with direction).

This morning students are in tiered lectures learning about the fundamental and advanced theory or argumentation before hearing about micro vs. macro refutation. Another practice round will be happening tonight.

More updates to come!

Get Ready...

Concordia Debate Institute is about a week and a half away and we are excited to have you here. You should be getting an email with information about stuff before camp and the address for this blog. We will be using this to post updates during and after camp. Rather than sending out an email to parents each day we will use this blog to post information about what is happening at camp, what your child is doing and things like that. After camp you can come back and read about the success our students are having throughout their season!

We are looking forward to seeing you on July 8th between 2-4:30 for registration in the Olin Lobby. Bring your working hats because it is going to be a jam packed and fun filled 3 weeks.

Alumni Make it to Nationals

From Southern Minnesota a majority of those who qualified are alumni of CDI.

CDI wishes to congratulate Logan Chin (Edina), Josh Luppes and Bretty Lind (Rosemount), and Ava Ferenci (Wayzata).

We also wish to congratulate all of the alternatives who all attended CDI.

CDI Alumni Storm State

Finalists
Logan Chin (Edina)

Semi-Finalists
Brett Lind and Josh Luppes (Rosemount)
Maddie Gardner and Gong Zi (Wayzata)

Quarter-Finalists
Kevin Milne and Justin Moor (Edina)

Alumni at the MN State Tournament

The following alumni have qualified to the Minnesota State Debate Tournament:

Eagan: Maddi Gardner, Gong Zi
Jefferson: Nick Groenke, Kendra Speedling
Edina: Logan Chin, Kevin Milne, Justin Moor
Moorhead: Joe Skaggs Jr., Mia Bonitto, Michelle Stanley
Rosemount: Brett Lind, Josh Luppes
Wayzata: Ava Ferenci, Catie Shalwey
Worthington: Qiu Chen

Congrats all and good luck at the State Tournament