Tier 1 Spring Intensives
Brooklyn Debate League (“BDL”) specializes in building the capacity of NYC public schools to establish competitive and sustainable debate teams from scratch. Through our gradual release model, we train student and faculty leaders over the course of a few years of partnering together.
For schools that don’t have teams yet, the journey begins with our Spring Intensive, a three-month program that includes an after-school course, a capstone in-person tournament, and an intensive summer camp.
Applications are due March 31.
Late April - Early June
BDL staff leads six weekly 90-120 minute after school sessions on your campus, starting the week of April 27 and ending the week of June 1.
Ideally, the same group of 5-10 committed students would participate each week. The course would be an introduction to Speech & Debate and build foundational skills of public speaking and argumentation.
For high school programs, we recommend you recruit 9th graders for this course. For middle school programs, we recommend you recruit 7th and 8th graders. We’ll provide slide decks and flyers to help you recruit students.
Arc of Program
Late June
BDL hosts the Conyers Cup, in-person tournament named for our co-founder Jon Conyers, at St Francis College in late June.
This year’s Conyers Cup will be held on Saturday 6/20 and Sunday 6/21. All participants from BDL partner schools from all three tiers are encouraged to compete in the tournament.
This is intended to be a capstone of learning from the spring course and help students experience what a debate competition feels like, as well as an introduction to the rest of the BDL community.
July
BDL hosts an in-person summer camp in July, and our Tier 1 schools will receive some guaranteed spots to send students.
Camp this year will be at St Francis College in downtown Brooklyn from July 6-17 for middle school, and July 20-August 7 for high school.
This is intended to help students building on the momentum from the spring course and prepare them for the fall season.
If both the school and BDL agree to move forward, the school will be invited to participate at the Tier 2 (hybrid) or Tier 3 (in-person) level during the following school year starting in October.
FAQ
Q: Which schools are eligible for this?
A: All NYC public middle and high schools are eligible for our Tier 1 Spring Intensive course, but special priority will be given to Title I high schools in Brooklyn.
Q: Is the spring intensive for middle school or high school?
A: Both middle and high schools can apply for the spring intensive. Priority will be given to middle schools where we already have a high school partnership, and vice versa.
Q: Does my school need to have a designated faculty member to serve as debate coach?
A: At this stage in the game, no. Most of our schools participating at the Tier 1 level haven’t found a debate coach yet. If you continue to partner with us after Tier 1, you’ll have at least a year to find someone on staff who wants to learn how to be the debate coach. (We will train them!)
Q: How much does it cost?
A: We ask non-Title I schools to pay $5,000 for the program, but we are happy to work with Title I schools to find an amount that works within your budget.
Q: I want to build a debate team at my school, but I don’t have any kids yet.
A: We’ll provide slide decks, flyers and communications to send to kids and families to help you recruit kids. If you’d like, we can also come in before the course starts and run an in-person interest meeting.
Q: When is the application due?
A: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, but you’re more likely to be accepted this cycle if you fill it out mid-March at the latest.
