Premier public speaking, debate, & critical thinking classes for 5th to 12th grade students nationwide

Invest in the lifelong gift of public speaking for your child.

Overview

Eloquence Academy offers engaging academic debate classes and summer camps.

Hosted online and in-person at select community centers across 35 states and 16 countries, our flagship classes offer a scaffolded introduction into the world of research, argumentation, and academic debate. Students learn in an effective classroom environment that is inclusive, equitable, and intellectually stimulating. At any given moment, our classrooms resonate with confident speech, joyful inquiry, and self-discovery.

Over the course of two years, students embark on a journey from public speaking novices to confident debaters ready to tackle national circuit tournaments. Our curriculum has been developed and peer-reviewed over the course of a decade. Just as importantly, our educators are rigorously trained. Their dedication and expertise is best reflected by how skillfully they bring out the best in every student and nurture their academic journey. They reflect the rich racial and socioeconomic diversity of the young people we serve. As a result, we consistently hear from our alumni that they were able to sustain lifelong relationships with authentic mentors who championed their voice, challenged their comfort zones, and celebrated their growth.

Program Eligibility

✔️ You are in the 4th through 12th grades at the time of registration

✔️ You have stable internet connection (online classes)

✔️ You are able to commute to one of our community learning centers (in-person classes)

✔️ You have permission to register from a parent or legal guardian

✔️ No fees or tuition for any classes

Proudly Supported By

Arizona State University

asu.edu
Hershey Company

hersheycompany.com
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

mott.org
Youth Service America

ysa.org

Instructional Programs Office

The largest of our three major programs, our classes and summer camps take students on an adventure of discovery and growth where curiosity is celebrated and confidence knows no bounds.

About

Values

FAQ

Newsroom

Key Info

$0 Tuition

10 Weeks

10:1 Student Ratio

60 Minutes

Finding your voice

Through a course of study providing a leveled pathway to mastery

We believe that comfort and confidence with public speaking are best acquired through consistent practice and constructive feedback. To this end, we offer a substantive course catalog, a leveled pathway to mastery, and diverse personalized learning structures. We invite you to explore our course catalog, which breathes life to the core experience and innovative approach to pedagogy at Eloquence Academy.

Course Catalog

Impactful Storytelling

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Impactful Storytelling *

In 2023, we launched Impactful Storytelling, our intensive summer debate camp.

Each year, during the second week of August, 200 students across all experience and grade levels gather virtually to re-connect with friends after a long summer and hone their skills for the fast-approaching competitive season. The morning is exclusively dedicated to debate, offering a combination of lectures, topic analysis presentations, drills, prep sessions, and practice rounds. An intimate 6:1 student-to-coach ratio ensures that each student can receive personalized feedback and have their questions answered. Throughout the week, students work towards a camp-wide intramural tournament on Friday.

In the afternoon, students may choose from a variety of elective courses offered under the auspicies of the Beyond Debate Initiative. Recent course titles have included Financial Literacy 101, the History of the Presidential Debates, Persuasive Writing, and Political Advocacy: How, When & Why.

Rhetoric Rookies is predicated on a fundamental question: What is speech and debate and why should we seek to understand it? Students begin by watching past presidential debates, analyzing, and then collaborating to define the concepts of “public speaking” and “debate.” From there, the class transitions into an in-depth exploration of public speaking, focusing on the art of rhetoric and the persuasive appeals of Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle — ethos, pathos, and logos. Students watch and analyze speeches by influential activists, politicians, and entrepreneurs, using these real-world examples to understand effective speaking techniques. Key components of the subsequent debate section of the course include the CWI argument structure, identification and analysis of logical fallacies, and the crafting of effective rebuttals. Lessons are brought to life through interactive activities like trivia games, Kahoot!, quizzes, and tongue twisters. The semester culminates in a dynamic role-play simulation: a zombie apocalypse survival scenario. Each student is assigned a unique character with specific traits, professions, and motivations. Drawing on the skills developed throughout the course, students present persuasive speeches arguing why their character deserves to survive. At other debate academies, this course aligns with the Novice (N) level of instruction.

Public Forum (PF) is the most popular format of middle and high school competitive debate in the United States. With resolutions centered on current events, PF relies on logic, clear communication, and well-sourced evidence with a preference for reliability and recency. Recent PF topics have tackled single-use plastics, surveillance infrastructure on the United States Southern border, and federal student debt cancellation. Upon the completion of this course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of PF round structure, the purpose of each speech, a basic grasp of round vision, and some in-round debate experience.
Since PF is a team-based format, with partnerships of two paired against one another, instructors consistently emphasize the importance of collaboration and build strong working relationships between students. The course begins with a brief review of key concepts from Rhetoric Rookies. However, students are largely expected to enter the course with a foundational understanding of rhetoric, argument structure, and rebuttal strategy. The heart of the course delves into PF-specific skills through targeted lectures, hands-on drills, and guided practice debates. These concepts include:
- Advantage structure
- Case writing and reading
- Offense vs. defense strategy
- Cutting cards (evidence preparation)
- Flowing (note-taking during rounds)
At other debate academies, this course is generally equivalent to the Junior Varsity (JV) level.

This high-level course revisits topics from past learning at a much deeper level. Additionally, new topics including spikes, meta-weighing, backlining, and judge adaptation are introduced. A defining feature of this course—compared to the Argument Architects class—is the emphasis on research and debate around topics of global significance. For the first time, students receive topic analysis lectures from coaches based on the assigned National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) PF resolution. New concepts are examined through the lens of both current and past PF resolutions, encouraging students to develop nuanced, well-rounded arguments.
Over the course of the semester, students are expected to prepare full cases and partial blockfiles. Faculty will organize two in-house debate sessions between students: a mid-semester debate day (week 5) and a culminating debate day (week 10). After all debates, faculty provide an oral and written RFD (reason for decision), personalized feedback to all competitors, and suggested edits to students’ cases and blockfiles. Upon the completion of this course, students may begin attending national circuit debate tournaments.
At other debate academies, this course aligns with Varsity (V) level.

Team X is the crown jewel of Eloquence Academy, characterized by its rigorous curriculum and significant amount of work during and after classes. Most students in Team X have attended at least one prior tournament and/or are familiar with national circuit debate. For a majority of the course, students engage directly with coaches in crafting cases and blockfiles, receiving lectures on the most recent NSDA topic, partaking in drills, and debating against one another. Between lessons, members can access our exclusive newsletter curated on a weekly basis to include the most relevant current events and academic research on a given topic.
The only new concept taught in this course is progressive argumentation, with a focus on theory shells as they are read on the PF national circuit. Students are introduced to what a shell is, the various components of a shell, popular shells on the PF national circuit (paraphrasing, disclosure/open-source, etc.), and how to respond to a shell primarily through counter-interps. The course includes a brief segment on both topical and non-topical K literature. Coaches will assist students with starting and maintaining their page on the OpenCaseList, including contact information, best practices for citations, and writing round reports.
Unique to this course is the complementary tournament registration service; at any point in the semester, students may ask to be registered under the ''Eloquence Academy'' name for an online debate tournament. When tournaments arrive, coaches are available for hands-on support. Upon the completion of this course, students are equipped for achieving deep competitive success. They are also equipped with a lifelong understanding of public speaking and how to prepare for these tournaments, no matter the topic.
At other debate academies, this course would correlate with the Travel Team.

As opposed to PF, the Canadian National Debate Format (CNDF) is the most popular style of debate in Canada. Most CNDF rounds are impromptu. Students learn about the topic that they will debate as they enter the room. They then have 20 minutes to prepare without technology. Therefore, rounds are more focused on logical reasoning rather than intensive research, scholarly evidence, or debate technicalities. Still, several aspects of CNDF carry over to other debate events, including judge adaptation, weighing, and argument structure. The CNDF season starts in January and there are several regional, provincial, and national tournaments throughout the year.
In this course, students will learn the CNDF format, thoroughly unpack each speech of the round, watch demo CNDF rounds with guided instructor analysis to identify strong strategies and common pitfalls, practice on-the-spot case generation, and receive personalized feedback to refine both their speaking style and strategic decision-making in-round. Upon the completion of this course, students may begin attending CNDF tournaments.

Private coaching is offered in 20-minute increments. It should be utilized if a student misses class, feels lost, or would like to go above and beyond in their studies of the activity. When attending a private class, students are encouraged to bring specific questions that they would like addressed. Students may not choose a specific faculty member for the coaching.
As faculty have limited availability, not all students will be allotted private coaching sessions for a semester. A student may only have two private coaching sessions per semester, at maximum.
Families will receive an email from administration about signing up for private coaching. The email will be sent roughly two weeks into the start of classes.

Offered under the auspices of Beyond Debate, Expressing Yourself helps students master interviews for schools, colleges, highly selective programs, and internships. Throughout the course, students will learn how to craft and deliver authentic, compelling personal narratives; participate in mock interviews with structured feedback from instructors; practice body language, tone, and poise under pressure; respond to common and curveball interview questions with clarity and confidence; explore how to highlight their strengths, interests, and goals in an engaging way; develop skills for both in-person and virtual interview settings; and receive personalized coaching to strengthen their presence and presentation style. Upon the completion of this course, students will leave with practical strategies, increased self-awareness, and a polished set of tools to help them shine in any high-stakes conversation.

In 2023, we connected with leadership at the Boston Debate League, learning about the founding and evolution of their Debate en Español initiative, the longest-running Spanish language debate program in the United States.
Shortly thereafter, we announced a five-year partnership with the Latino Education Advancement Fund (LEAF). Together with LEAF, we have developed a specialized ESL curriculum and deployed it through a free, year-round debate class for their Spanish-speaking Latino elementary school students. The theme that ties the course together is “el debate y la discusión: encontrar razones y evidencia.” The overarching goal of the class is to build students’ familiarity with English syntax, grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure, all while introducing and practicing foundation public speaking skills. We hope to build a community that celebrates Spanish and Spanish-speaking cultures.

Lead Faculty

The list may showcase previous faculty.

Rachel Barold
Argument Architects Teacher

Erika Chiu
Debater’s Workshop Teacher

Aaron Choi
ESL Debate Teacher

Alek Ding
Rhetoric Rookies Teacher

Sowmiya Deventhira-Raja
Rhetoric Rookies Teacher

Reagan Fournier
Expressing Yourself Teacher
Western Kentucky University - B.A.

Hayul “Ellie” Kim
ESL Debate Teacher

Zane Pearson
Coach of Team X
Brigham Young University-Idaho - B.A.

Shakthi Prabhakaran
Rhetoric Rookies Teacher
University of Pittsburgh - B.S.

Narges Rasouli
Debater’s Workshop Teacher
American University - B.A.

Rudri Soni
Rhetoric Rookies Teacher

Melinda “Michi” Synn
Argument Architects Teacher
Harvard College - B.A.

Kira Waldhalm
Mentor
Middlebury College - B.A.

Jonathan Zu
CNDF Teacher

Core Values

Faculty — Holistic Support — Joyful Learning

Faculty

Recruiting experts in their field

Our faculty are a group of dynamic, stimulating, and passionate scholars who make courses come alive for their students. Many competed in debate, often ranking as high as the top 1% of the nation. However, we recognize that a list of accolades does not always translate to the most effective instruction. To this end, we partnered with the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation at Arizona State University (ASU). All faculty complete micro-credentials and professional development classes from ASU to acquire mastery in pedagogy.

Holistic Support

Building lifelong skills

While our coaches are passionate and highly dedicated to the act of debating itself, Eloquence Academy commits itself to educating the next generation of dynamic and eloquent leaders. By the time they graduate, we hope our students leave with a sense of self-confidence that can anchor them wherever they go—ready to shape communities with authenticity, purpose, and personal voice. Our field trips, experiential learning, and electives support students’ academic and personal journeys beyond the classroom walls.

Joyful Learning

Cultivating a lifelong love of learning

Eloquence Academy is an educational organization. Above all, we provide enriching experiences that are fun and encourage openness, collaboration, and thirst for further learning. From the earliest classes, students are encouraged to explore their interests and deliver passionate speeches. As their skills and knowledge grow, with the support and guidance of faculty, those interests blossom into creative, polished speeches that are deeply meaningful and relevant to their lives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Classes are offered year-round, with each semester lasting 10 weeks. The fall semester runs from October through December. Winter Break takes place from late December through January, during which no programs are held. The spring semester runs from February through April, with a one-week Spring Break in mid-March. The summer semester runs from June through August. Classes do not meet on any national holidays.
Each class lasts for one hour and is structured to maximize engagement and learning, bolstered by a competitive 10:1 student-to-coach ratio. Each session begins with 15 minutes dedicated to public speaking. Students deliver a speech and receive feedback on their general persuasive abilities. This is followed by a 30-minute lecture that delivers core debate content. The final 15 minutes are reserved for a critical thinking activity, ensuring that students not only absorb information but develop essential soft skills.
All registrations are processed on a rolling basis through our online registration form. Please fill it out to the best of your ability. Once you register, we will place you in the next available semester. If it is early in the current semester (within the first week), we will do our best to enroll you immediately. If the semester is already underway, we hold your spot for the following one.
Your submission of the registration form is nonbinding and does not obligate you to enroll. We will proceed to reach out to you with our student handbook, semester calendar, and the nearest in-person location (if applicable) so you can review all pertinent details. After reviewing the materials, you can finalize your intent to enroll. For in-person classes, you will need to fill out additional medical forms.