Harvard College World Schools invitational

Three reasons you should consider attending the Harvard College World Schools Invitational from March 24 – March 26, 2017:

1. This will be the best-judged World Schools Tournament in the Western Hemisphere. We have two WSDC champions, two runner-ups, numerous outround participants, and other former competitors on our team that will be judging, as well as people who have coached breaking WSDC teams over the past two years. In international British Parliamentary debate (the most similar debate style to WSDC in the collegiate format), we have won Worlds twice and been in finals once over the past three years. We will also have teams and coaches from the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Peru, and other countries competing and judging at our tournament as well.

2. This is a great opportunity for aspiring members of the USA Debate Team. For students thinking about trying out for the USA Debate Team, this is a great chance for them to become familiar with the format and potentially add an impressive competitive success to their debate resume. Additionally, USA Debate will be sending competitors to our tournament, and four current Harvard students (Danny DeBois, Tiana Menon, Amelia Miller, and Julia Lauer) are also alumni of the USA Debate Team. We will also likely have other USA Debate Alumni judging as well.

3. This presents a unique opportunity to grow the World Schools-style format in the United States. Most (if not all) other U.S. tournaments with WS divisions tend to also have divisions in other U.S. formats, meaning many talented debaters and judges never try out the new format because they stick to what they know best. This tournament will only have a WS division, and it will be during a time of the year when there aren’t many other national circuit tournaments occurring. World Schools debate teaches current events knowledge, communication skills, impromptu argument generation, and teamwork in a way that many other U.S. formats do not, which is why the National Speech and Debate Association has invested so much in it. No prior experience in World Schools is required to attend, and we will be giving out awards for novices in the format as well. 

We hope you’ll consider attending! You can register on tabroom here: http://hcwsi2017.tabroom.com

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Tiana Menon at [email protected] or Danny DeBois at [email protected].