A Different Kind of Summer Camp: the California National Debate Institute at UC Berkeley

Ryan Nguyen and Vu Quang had the exceptional opportunity to attend a three week California National Debate Institute (CDNI) held at UC Berkeley this summer.

Both Ryan and Vu are from Yerba Buena High School, and they boast an impressive track record in debate. They've participated in various internal and national tournaments, including the CAL Berkeley Invitational and the Urban Debate National Championship.

CDNI brings together some of the brightest and hardest working high school coaches, college coaches, and current college debaters to provide students a variety of educational perspectives.

A special emphasis is placed on helping students refine their speaking and argument techniques through a number of practice debates and speeches, as well as an end-of-camp tournament.

“If it weren't for camp, I probably would have spent the whole summer sleeping in and playing video games. I knew I had to step out of my comfort zone to invest in debate,” said Ryan as he reflected on his  summer experience. “In a word, I would describe it as fulfilling.”

His partner Vu agreed with how wonderful a summer it turned out to be. “I was ecstatic when I found out I was attending. I couldn't believe that I was given such an amazing opportunity by SVUDL,” Vu said.

Ryan was also very surprised and excited. He had heard that debate camp was somewhat of an elite experience and was looking forward to such an opportune journey. “The coaches were really engaging, helpful, and very enthusiastic about debate,” added Ryan.

Both Ryan and Vu appreciated the variety of educational perspectives they found themselves exposed to in this unique environment. “Since there were students coming in from different states around the country, they came with various backgrounds and preferences. There were a lot of debaters who stuck to traditional Policy debate, some teams who exclusively ran Kritiks and read their varying philosophers, and some who researched a mixture of both,” said Ryan.

Vu emphasized that during camp, he really got to explore a variety of different arguments on this year's topic ranging from politics to economics to more critical works. He enjoyed diversifying his debate arsenal and learning about this year's new topic on economic inequality.

Ryan particularly appreciated the staff to student ratio which was relatively low, and allowed for more accessible and personalized help and teaching.  Vu noted that the ratio may have been 1 lab leader per 10 students.

Ryan liked that there was lots of time to refine his speaking and argument techniques via speaking drills every day to increase reading speed and clarity. He also thought the topic-specific lectures and seminars, and practice debates throughout the duration of the camp were especially helpful.

Vu thought the drills and exercises helped him to improve upon his speeches. He also found that the lectures on how to properly strategize and prepare for a debate tournament were invaluable.

“Over the course of camp, we did 6 practice rounds and 6 camp tournament rounds, totaling up to 12 rounds. We also redid our rebuttals a few times after our practice rounds,” he added.

Ryan found that his feelings about the end-of-camp tournament shifted over time. “At first, we were nervous about the tournament, but then we just treated it like the 6 practice rounds we had before and tried to learn the most from them,” he said.  Vu noted that “while the camp tournament was definitely stressful, I found the improvement we made during camp was astonishing!”

Ryan found that at UC Berkeley, the lab leaders definitely had connections to other people as well as their own respective universities and experiences. All of the students had access to a large literature base, archives, and support with research skills. While there, Ryan felt he definitely improved his research skills, and learned various outlets with which to locate sources and articles and how to use them, in order to build upon his prior research experience.

Ryan has one particularly fond memory: “I had one seminar where the topic was adapting to small school debate. I was able to talk to other people who came from similar experiences, and we felt connected through the empathizing of having a small debate team and having access to fewer resources. It felt almost like therapy.”

He adds that he  brought home the understanding that the debate community is really a small world. “There are names, famous debate teams, and schools that you hear frequently, and my ears could probably pick up on a specific author, the mention of a lab leader, or a team that made it to finals,” he said.

Vu has his own favorite moment to share:  it was the team bonding activities of the lab, playing charades and Pictionary together. That was a nice evolution from the inevitable challenges at the start of the transition to camp: “I think the first week was definitely very tough.  We were feeling a bit homesick and were also not used to the workload of camp. However, with the support of Dr. Burns (SVUDL Director of Programming) and Najma Ali (SVUDL Program Specialist), who were helping and checking in on us, we were able to adapt to camp and really enjoy the experience,” said Vu.

Now that they’re back in school, Ryan and Vu look forward to sharing all that they learned with their Yerba Buena High School teammates.

SVUDL extends enormous thanks to SVUDL board member and Kirkland & Ellis LLP Partner Jim Basile for making this spectacular opportunity real.