Welcome to the San Antonio Debate Drama and Leadership Experience!
The SA Debate Drama and Leadership Experience (SADDLE) is a 1 week summer camp for middle and high school students looking to improve their pubic speaking, advocacy, and argumentation skills. The SADDLE aims to take advantage of San Antonio's history of national speech and debate excellence by pairing top notch speech and debate coaches with motivated youth from around the city to help grow and train tomorrow's leaders and advocates. So what are you waiting for? SADDLE UP!
|
Experienced Teachers |
Varied Instruction |
The SADDLE is committed to providing your students with the best teachers and mentors the city has to offer. All of our senior staff members have a background as full-time teachers and coaches so you can guarantee that your students are receiving instruction from educational professionals.
Affordable Pricing As individuals who are both aware of the expenses associated with most debate summer camps and committed to the expansion of speech and debate throughout San Antonio, we recognize how important a reasonably priced speech and debate camp is for expanding access to students and parents. As such, our camp is nearly substantially cheaper than any other speech and debate camp in the city of San Antonio or throughout the state of Texas.
|
We understand that all students are unique and have differing levels of experience with public speaking and competitive speech and debate events, and that younger students can be passed over in favor of their more experienced counterparts at larger camps. This is why we have decided to target our camp towards middle school students and those high school students who have completed their first or second year in debate. This will allow us to provide a unique camp experience that targets specific student needs. We intend to split students into beginner, intermediate and advanced learning groups based on both age and experience level in order to tailor instruction to each student's need and skill level.
Competitive SuccessIn addition to being excellent teachers, our staff is also comprised of coaches with extensive competitive success as both competitors and coaches at both the high school and collegiate level. Our staff features numerous UIL and TFA State Champions, national finalist coaches, and National Speech and Debate Association Hall of Fame Members.
|
UPDATES:
- 5/24--After careful consideration for both our staff and students, we believe that it is best to follow the lead of every other major debate camp in the country and host the 2020 SADDLE online. While we teachers miss in-person interactions with our students, we also know that not only is online debate education possible, but with our experience as classroom teachers this year, we're confident that we will be able to provide a quality camp experience for students. While not an ideal scenario, we feel that not only is student safety an absolute priority, but as individuals who are immunocompromised or who have family members who are, this is the best decision for our staff as well.
- We are carefully monitoring the situation with COVID-19 and keeping track of directives from both the State of Texas as well as the city of San Antonio. All decisions about whether to host the camp in-person will be made with the health and safety of students and staff in mind. Just because we have opened up more businesses and parts of the city does not necessarily mean that we will decide to host an in-person camp, if we feel that there is a risk posed to students, staff, and their families by meeting in person, we will opt to hold the camp online this summer. A final decision on whether or not to host the camp in person on May 25.
- We have already begun the process of planning what an online camp would look like and thinking of ways to make the camp more flexible for families and students while still offering a rigorous education.