Ambassador Club & Stoa's SV Debate Events for ages mature 12-18
Ambassador Club is affiliated with Stoa, our National, Christian, home school Speech and Debate league, which is open to students who are 12-18 by October 1, 2024. Here are Stoa's eligibility criteria.
Ambassador Club incorporates all of Stoa's Senior Varsity Debate Events in our Club coaching along with Student Congress Debate with its own tournament. Depending on the tournament schedule, Ambassador offers all or most of these Stoa events at our tournaments.
All our Senior Varsity Speech events are listed and described on the Ambassador Club & Stoa's Senior Varsity Speech Events TAB in the left-hand column above.
Ambassador Club also offers, as do more & more Stoa Clubs across the US, a Junior Varsity Club for students ages 8-12, with 10 different speech events in the same general categories as the SV speech events, along with Student Congress debate. The JV speeches are in the same main categories as the SV speech events; Platform, Interpretive, and Limited Prep speeches. These are all listed and described on our website under the Junior Varsity Speech & Debate Events TAB above in the left-hand column.
Below on this page are all of the Stoa and Ambassador Debate events with links to the Rules of each event and the Ballots used to judge each event. While this is a lot of information to absorb and learn, it is posted here primarily for students and parents to research, read, and learn the rules of the debate and speech events in which students choose to compete. It is essential to know the rules of the events in which you are competing.
Important Statement of Stoa's '24-'25 Executive Summary of Debate Document Changes.
The statement above outlines a set of recommendations for the use of evidence in debate rounds. These standards are not rules, but they are “best practices” that our organization wants to strongly encourage. Stoa has a commitment to high standards of ethics and accountability and believes that these standards advance these goals. This document begins with the biblical principles undergirding the specifics of the standards that follow.
Senior Varsity Debate Events:
I. Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate – LD: 3 different Debate Resolutions in the competition season, Single competitor, value-based debate
# 1: Resolved: The acquisition of knowledge is an intrinsic good.
The next two resolutions are:
#2: Resolved: Mandatory national service is justified.
#3: Resolved: In U.S. law enforcement, accountability ought to be prioritized over effectiveness.
The order of the 2nd & 3rd resolutions will be announced on December 1.
The competition window for each resolution will be as follows:
Resolution #1: October - December 31
Resolution #2: January 1 - March 9
Resolution #3: March 10 - NITOC
Stoa's LD Debate Statement of Purpose: The purpose of Lincoln Douglas Value Debate, LD or LDV, is to train Christian home school students in the skills of presentation, critical thinking, research, and analysis of basic values in an environment of honorable competition, to cultivate maturity, wisdom, grace, and poise, bringing glory to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Students debate one on one.
Stoa's '24-'25 LD Value Debate Rules
Stoa's LD Debate Ballot for Oct. '24-Jan '25
II.Team Policy Debate – TP: Two Teams of two competitors, policy-based debate
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reform its policy on healthcare.
Stoa Special Announcement regarding the '24-'25 TP Healthcare Debate Resolution
Stoa's TP Debate Statement of Purpose: The purpose of Team Policy Debate, TP, is to train Christian home school students in the skills of presentation, critical thinking, research and policy analysis in an environment of honorable competition, to cultivate maturity, wisdom, grace, and poise, bringing glory to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Stoa's '24-'25 TP Debate Rules
The Stoa '24-'25 TP Debate Ballot
III. Parliamentary Debate – PARLI: Two Teams of two competitors each debating a variety of resolutions
The Parliamentary Debate resolutions are announced / released prior to the beginning of each round. We practice Parliamentary during club meetings. Students debate in teams of two.
Stoa's Parli Debate Statement of Purpose: The Purpose of Parliamentary Debate is to train students to employ advanced debate and speaking skills informed by an accumulation of general and specific knowledge on a broad range of topics. The goal is to prepare students to deal with real world advocacy and argumentation in a manner that exhibits maturity, wisdom, grace and poise, bringing glory to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Stoa's Parli Debate Eligibility Rule: Each debater must have reached age sixteen (16) by October 1st of the competition year, or have competed for two or more years in another debate format, or receive consent from her/his coach. A parliamentary debate team consists of two competitors. A team may not switch partners within a single tournament.
Stoa's '24-'25 Parli Debate Rules
Stoa's '24-'25 Parli Ballot
Additional Stoa & Ambassador Debate Information: Stoa Debate Information
IV. Student Congress – Individual debates in a group as a mock legislature
In Student Congress, students research and write their own pieces of legislation, bills and resolutions, which they feel will better the society in which we live, just like our state and US Senators and Representatives. At a tournament, debaters will then speak on the legislation while using proper parliamentary procedure, which is used by most governmental bodies. Judges score each competitor based on argumentation ability (organization, content, logic, and documented support), speaking technique (oral and physical presentation and style), knowledge of parliamentary procedure, and overall participation. In each session of Congress, a student will act as the Presiding Officer. Robert's Rules of Order is the definitive book on parliamentary procedure.
Student Congress Information & Overview
Below are the 2 types of ballots used during Student Congress competition.
Student Congress Legislator Ballot
Student Congress Presiding Officer Ballot