North Shore Debate Institute Summer Workshop
Founded in 2023, the North Shore Debate Institute will be returning for a third summer of making summer debate accessible to as many students as possible!
June 9, 2025 to June 20, 2025
The North Shore Debate Institute Summer Workshop is a two-week policy debate workshop designed to provide a basic workshop experience for younger debaters looking for an introduction to the upcoming topic. Instruction will be targeted towards students competing on their second or third policy debate topic. Current middle schoolers with heading into high school are welcome.
Unlike most workshops, we focus on providing a more narrowly tailored workshop experience to provide maximum accessibility. We offer one of the lowest cost summer programs available, and provide remote evening lectures. Additionally, our program is designed to accommodate students with other summer obligations such as work or summer school.
Staff/Lecturers
We’re still staffing for the 2025 workshop, but we had a fantastic staff for 2024 workshop, with their most recent school affiliation in parenthesis.
Nicholas Jennings (Niles West High School)- Nicholas is currently the head coach at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, where his teams have experiences successes at every level. In addition, Nicholas is also serves as a lab-leader at the University of Michigan Classic workshop. Nicholas began lecturing for NSDI in 2024.
Parth Shah (University of Pittsburg, Glenbrook North High School)- Parth was a successful high school and college policy debater. His competitive successes included multiple individual and team awards, and he qualify for the National Debate Tournament in 2022. Parth has been lecturing at NSDI since its inception.
Bella Piekut (Emory University)- Bella was a successful high school and college policy debater. Her accomplishments include being named to the Illinois All-State Debate team (2021), qualifying for the Tournament of Champions (2021), qualifying for the National Debate Tournament (2024, 2025), and making it to the quarter-finals of 2024 NDT. Bella began lecturing for NSDI in 2024.
Ashton Smith (University of Michigan)- Ashton was a successful high school and college policy debater, with his career culminating being named the 2020 American Debate Association’s Varsity Debater of the year while debating for the University of Michigan. In addition to lecturing at NSDI, he has taught at University of Michigan Summer Debate Institute and at the Detroit Urban Debate League Summer Camp. Ashton has been lecturing at NSDI since its inception.
Wayne Tang (Northside College Prep)- Wayne has a lengthy debate resume. He has been initiated into the Barkley Forum’s Golden Key Society, and is a three-Diamond coach with the National Speech an Debate Association. Wayne has coached teams to win the Illinois State Championships in both the varsity and novice divisions. Wayne began lecturing for NSDI in 2024.
Analysis of the Topic
Students will be introduced to topic staples including the Politics disadvantage, and Security kritik, as well as topic specific content including lectures, including topicality.
Schedule
Instruction is Monday through Friday from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. CDT. Day will consist of a one (1) hour lecture on a designated topic, immediately followed by a 30-minute question and answer period. Instructors will remain available for at least 30 minutes following the completion of their lecture.
Fees
The total fees for the 2025 North Shore Debate Institute Summer Workshop are $300.00. Early bird registration of $275.00 will be available through May 1, 2025. The full balance shall be due at the time of registration.
Team resource packages are available for $950.00, and include unlimited registrations for all students from a single school.
Application Policy
The June Session will be limited to 50 applicants. Should the June program fill up, additional applicants may be wait-listed for a potential July session. At this time, we do NOT anticipate a July session occurring.