We’re excited to offer FDA Warm Springs’ 8th annual debate program this year, in partnership with the PTA!

Over the past 8 years, FDA has impacted over 5000 elementary and middle school students. Under our instruction, students and alumni internationally over the past several have championed or qualified to elimination rounds 200+ times, accumulated 350+ winning records, and received 110+ speaker awards.

This year, we’re running an 8-week-long competitive debate program for 4th and 5th graders focusing on the Middle School Public Debate Format at Warm Springs Elementary School. Students will learn various structured forms of argumentation, and research techniques. Through practice sessions, drills, and mini-competitions, students’ public speaking skills will be vastly improved. The final goal will be to give students a head-start into the highly selective FDA Debate program for students attending Horner*. At the end of the school year, there will be an FDA international tournament! We will be splitting up students into Novice and Advanced sections. The Advanced offering will specifically be geared toward students who have participated in a Fremont Debate Academy program before.

Fremont Debate Academy’s studies about its programs exhibit strong results regarding student growth: Students participating in FDA’s debate & civics programs saw a 39.1% improvement in their self-confidence & public speaking skills. Students participating in FDA’s debate & civics programs saw a 45.9% improvement in their knowledge about the world & research skills. 90% of students said participating in FDA’s debate & civics programs has had a positive impact on their academic performance.

FDA Warm Springs Debate sessions will be held on Fridays from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm. There will be 8 classes for this program. The start date for the sessions will be March 3rd at Warm Springs. Our last session will be on May 12th. March 17th,  April 7th, and April 14th will be excluded due to spring break and no school days.

Please register here! The deadline for registration is on February 20th! 

Feel free to direct any questions to our two Warm Springs Leads:                            

Ayush Kansal - ayushk@fremontdebateacademy.org    

Rishabh Sen - rishabhs@fremontdebateacademy.org

WSPTA Contact for this program:
Haripriya Prakasam, VP of Programs, WSPTA - programs@warmspringspta.org