Advanced Debate Camp

The Friday show organization was poor.
For the L1 speech show, the scripts given for interpretive speeches were way too long, 12-15 minute per campers! The show lasted almost 2 hours without a break.
For the L1 debate camp, I was told by 3 campers that it wasn't very interesting. All the final debate topics are the same. The worst is that they scheduled 2 debates at the same time in the same room for the sake of saving time! Some counselors also talked loudly while campers were debating. I could barely hear anything my from the debaters right in front of me. The debaters had a hard time concentrating. Then there was an hour when there was nothing else to do but some bunker games. I don't understand why didn't they hold debate one-by-one if there was nothing else to do after?
Most counselors were first-year high schoolers, clearly didn't have much experience in organizing the camp. They were all very nice though.

My child thoroughly enjoyed this camp. The teachers of the camp were members of the PALY Debate team and were highly talented and skilled, who made the camp fun for the kids. My son stayed engaged throughout the camp and got introduced to some valuable skills. Highly recommend it for any middle-schooler.

My son, a rising 5th grader, joined this camp for the first time. Before joining he was hesitant and almost refused to go. However, after the first of the camp, he was put to ease and quick made some new friends. He went onto to enjoy this camp and at the last day he told me that he was interested in going back next year :) The counselors were high school sophomores and juniors from Paly, super nice and helpful! My son learned quite a bit from the camp and we are looking forward to returning.