National Debate Forum

Updates for Accepted Students

palmer — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:37:24 +0000

We’ve posted some information for accepted students.

The Health and Travel Forms, which are due back to Summit Debate by June 15th
A NDF FAQ, answering many of the common questions students and parents have about Summit programs and logistics
Preliminary camp schedules, with arrival and departure dates & information, outlining the general course of the camps. Session I Schedule. (June 27th - July 11th) Session II Schedule (July 18th - August 1st).

Congratulations Kelsey Hilbrich, TOC Champion, NDF Alumni

jenny — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:44:39 +0000

Kelsey Hilbrich attended NDF last summer and on Derby weekend she was a part of the winning Public Forum Team at the Tournament of Champions!

Kelsey was one of mutliple students in outrounds of the Tournament of Champions in PF and LD Debate who attended our debate programs. We are proud of all of the students who qualified, attended and those who broke out into elimination rounds. You represented NDF extremely well!

Faculty Update

steve — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:53:25 +0000

We are excited about the faculty that we are assembling for this year’s National Debate Forum Lincoln-Douglas Debate institutes in Boston and Fort Lauderdale. We will continue to update the faculty as applications continue to come in. The most current list of faculty includes:

Dario Camara
Tim Case
Tom Evnen
Arianna Guzman
Ken Hershey
Ari Parker
Ernie Rose
Steve Schappaugh
Tara Tedrow
Becca Traber
Joe Vaughan
Shivani Vorha
Andy Werner
Kris Wright

Jonathan Peele

jenny — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:43:41 +0000

Jonathan Peele is in his second season as the Director of Debate and Speech at Manchester Essex Regional HS in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. Prior to Manchester Essex, he coached at East Chapel Hill High School in Chapel Hill, NC for seven seasons. Mr. Peele identifies East Chapel Hill’s 2005 NFL Nationals School of Excellence in Debate award and 2007 overall school state championship as his proudest coaching achievements. His credentials in Public Forum are numerous, with his teams having reached late elimination rounds at Wake Forest, Yale, Glenbrooks, George Mason, Crestian, Emory, Harvard, Harker, TOCs, and NFLs. Three times his teams claimed state championship honors in North Carolina - a state known for excellence in the event. He is a member of the TOC Advisory Committee for Public Forum and has served on both the North Carolina and Massachusetts state league boards. In addition to his successes in Public Forum debate, he his students have qualified to NFL Nationals 34 times and have claimed seven state championships in events ranging from Lincoln-Douglas to Oral Interpretation.

Patrick Toomey

jenny — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:25:28 +0000

Patrick Toomey is a sophomore in the honors program at UNC-Chapel Hill. He debated for Durham Academy in North Carolina for two years and currently coaches public forum debate for Trinity Prep in Florida. Patrick qualified to NFL nationals in public forum both his junior and senior year, placing ninth as a senior. During the regular tournament season his senior year Patrick won both Blue Key and Harvard, semi-finaled at Crestian and placed second at the TOC. During his two years at Trinity Prep, Patrick’s students have been incredibly successful, winning the Glenbrooks, Crestian, and CFL Nationals as well as placing second at ASU, Yale and Emory. This will be Patrick’s third summer coaching at NDF.

Rachel Urban

jenny — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:18:54 +0000

Rachel Urban is a Senior in the honors program at American University. She debated for Southern Lehigh High School in Pennsylvania for four years and graduated in 2007. During high school, she qualified three times to both NFL Nationals and to the TOC in Public Forum. In both her Junior and Senior year, she broke to outrounds at every regular season national tournament she attended. As a senior, she won Emory, finaled at Crestian, semi-finaled at Princeton, and octa-finaled at Harvard. In her junior year, she was Pennsylvania state champion, won UPenn for a second time, finaled at Emory, and semi-finaled at Yale as well as quarterfinaling at Crestian and Princeton. She has received various speaker awards throughout her career including 2nd at Harvard, 2nd at Crestian, and 3rd at Yale. Rachel is returning to NDF for her third summer and privately coaches throughout the year.

Greg Stevens

jenny — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:17:38 +0000

Greg Stevens comes to the National Speaker’s Forum from Okoboji High School in Milford, Iowa where he and his wife, Laura, have taught for many years. He is an NFL triple diamond coach. The past four years he has coached both Okoboji and Spirit Lake High Schools where his teams have been quite successful. At the state level they have had 19 state champions in LD, Public Forum, and Congress and finished 2nd an incredible 9 times in policy debate. Two of the past three years they have closed out the state finals in Public Forum debate and have won it all three years. The schools have a combined high school enrollment of less than 700, but they have managed to win the state sweepstakes championship and have not finished out of the top ten the past 15 years. This is Greg’s third summer at NSF.

The past six years, OSL has sent at least one team to NFL nationals, and all have broken to out rounds. They have a combined 58-14 record in prelim rounds over that time and have gone deep into elimination rounds the past four years with 4 top 20 finishes including a 14th,11th, and an 8th. He serves on the West Iowa NFL committee and served three terms on Iowa High School Speech Association Debate Committee. His students have been in final rounds at Apple Valley, (PF and LD), The Iowa Caucus, the Mid-America Cup at West Des Moines Valley, The Paradigm at West Des Moines Dowling Catholic High School, the Silver Bowl at Sioux Falls Lincoln HS, and Augustana University.

Stevens has been honored by his peers with the NFL District Coach of the Year Award, the Northwest Iowa Coach of the Year Award, the NFD Keynote Award, and others. He is also an award winning teacher having been named “The AKSARBEN Teacher-Leader of the year” for the four-state area of Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and Missouri honoring his innovative teaching style. He was also Unit 1 “Teacher of the Year” and Unit 10 “Teacher who made a Difference”.

Away from the classroom Stevens has an impressive record of service to the community. He served in Iowa Legislature as the State Representative of Iowa House District 7 for three terms where he was an assistant minority leader for four years. He sits on the State of Iowa Small Business Development Centers Board of Directors, the Dickinson County Endowment Fund, and was a founding president and is a present board member of the Lakes Community Land Trust.

Two sessions of NDF

palmer — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:14:19 +0000

National Debate Forum is pleased to announce that there will be two sessions of NDF for both Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum in the summer of 2009. Session I will be in Ft Lauderdale, FL from June 27 to July 11th. Session II will be in Boston, MA from July 18th - August 1st.

Take advantage of your ability to chose the dates and travel arrangements that are best for you! The experiences at both sessions will be amazing for all who attend! We are dedicated to providing students with the best staff, facilities and educational experiences available to them this summer. Do not hesitate to send questions to us at info@summitdebate.com.

Steve Schappaugh

palmer — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:55:39 +0000

Steve Schappaugh currently teaches at University School (FL) and is Director of Forensics. On top of that he also serves as the Vice President of Operations for the Florida Forensic League and is a committee member for the Manatee NFL District. Most recently he taught at Dowling Catholic High School (IA) before making his move to Florida. Steve has a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from Drake University, with a minor in History, and in May of 2009 he will have earned a Masters in Administration of Educational Programs from Nova Southeastern University.

As a coach Steve has accumulated coaching honors in both speech and debate. Most notably he coached the 2006 NFL National Champion in Humorous Interpretation. He has coached students to later elimination rounds at NFL Nationals in LD Debate — including a top 12 finish — and elimination rounds in Public Forum and Speech. His students have won numerous state championships: Oratory, Dramatic, Humorous, Duo, OI, Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas debate.

LD is a passion of his and his mainstay event in coaching. Students of his have been in out rounds of many of the nation’s finest LD tournaments, such as Valley, Iowa Caucus, Dowling Catholic Paradigm, St. Marks, Blake, Apple Valley, Harvard and more. He has coached students in LD Debate and Public Forum to the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, KY where some competed in elimination rounds.

Steve is a former NDF student and is returning for his ninth summer with Summit Debate overall.

Steffany Batik

steve — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:49:43 +0000

Steffany Batik is a teacher at Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, Texas. Her debaters have competed in late outrounds of national tournaments like the Glenbrooks, Grapevine, the Barkley Forum for High Schools, the Univeristy of Texas, Isidore Newman, Greenhill, St. Marks and the National Forensic League National Tournament. She has qualified a number of students to the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament, the Tournament of Champions and the National Forensic League National Tournament where she has coached a finalist in Lincoln Douglas in 2002 and a finalist in Student Congress in 2007. Steffany has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas in Austin in Government and History and is currently working on her Master’s in Education Administration at Lamar University.