Southwest Speech & Debate Institute

SWSDI 2018 is July 5th – July 19th

Registration is open!

Our curriculum is an intensive 9AM – 9PM series of classes, practice rounds, and coaching each day. We provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner to our students, and we set aside some time for recreation during camp to avoid burnout.

SWSDI is located at Barrett: The Honors College at Arizona State University in downtown Tempe, Arizona. Barrett is a state-of-the-art facility that features comfortable dormitories, high-tech classroom facilities, and extraordinary security measures to guarantee the comfort and safety of our students.

SWSDI offers some of the best, most competitive pricing in the industry. We believe everybody should be able to get the experience of debate camp, no matter what their economic situation might be. We are a not-for-profit camp, and we do our best to provide financial aid to those who might need it. This year, we are pleased to offer an excellent full-scholarship opportunity thanks to our friends at Metiza! Check it out at the “Scholarships” tab at the top of the page.

• Two-week Camps
• $1245 (resident)
• $930 (commuter)
• SWSDI offers two-week intensive instruction in these events.
• Lincoln-Douglas Debate
• Policy Debate
• Pick one event from session A, and one from session B

• One-week Camps
• $880 (resident)
• $660 (commuter)
• SWSDI offers one week workshops in these events.
• Public Forum (Session A)
• Original Oratory (Session A)
• Congressional Debate (Session B)
• Interp Events (Session B)
• Extemporaneous Speaking (Session B)

We pride ourselves on our curriculum because we believe in adapting it each year based on the needs of the circuit, novice and returning campers, and the feedback we receive at the end of each camp.

Our curricula are designed to be intense, practice-driven investigations of the events that we offer. Our expert staff works tirelessly to create lectures, drills, activities, and exercises that hone skills, and build knowledge.

Learn More

How are you connected to ASU?

We’re an independent non-profit organization run by Arizona Speech and Debate coaches. We work with the ASU Forensics team to help us manage administrative tasks, and we are guests at Barrett.

Can I do one week of a two-week event?

Our curriculum is carefully planned to use every minute of camp for something productive, with each lesson and activity leading into the next skill. Regardless whether the student is a novice or advanced, the student will miss important parts of the camp experience.

How are students supervised?

Students spend the majority of their time 9 am to 9 pm with their coaches in lab, and eat meals together in the dining hall or on ASU’s campus. After 9 pm, once students are all back inside the Barrett gates and the commuters have gone home, they are supervised by the resident coaches who all stay on the same floors with our students.

What happens if I can’t stay the whole time?

Occasionally we do have students who need to come late or leave early. We can prorate the expenses for rooms and meals if we have the information in advance.

What is the schedule every day?

We have breakfast at 8, begin labs at 9, and have lectures and activities until 9 pm each evening. Bedcheck is at 10 for middle-school students and 11 for everyone else.

I am a coach, is there any way for me to come learn about these events?

We do a multitude of coaching scholarships each year. Please contact the camp director for more information.

Aren’t they ever going to have any fun?

We think speech and debate IS fun. This is an academic, competitive camp for students who have competed or want to compete in Speech and Debate. Students will be busy doing something they love, but we won’t be spending hours and hours off task – even our games are designed to help students become better speakers, listeners, and thinkers.

More FAQ’s

Our Address

Southwest Speech and Debate Institute
P.O. Box 25404
Tempe, AZ 85282-5404
info@swsdi.org

Contacting SWSDI

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to send us an email using our email address printed to the left, or the contact form on the right. We will get back to you as soon as possible.