Student Testimonials Video

Hi, my name is Emily, and I think it was really engaging learning with Capitol Debate, with all the instructors who are genuinely interested in not just teaching us about the world of speech and debate but also getting to know us as individuals and allowing for us to learn based on what we are comfortable with and who we are as learners and as people.  I think that the online model was really interesting because when we're in person, we can oftentimes only debate with people in our own regions, and it can often limit the amount of people, whether that may be in our classes or in the tournaments themselves. But through the online model, we're able to interact with people from around the country and from all different debate experiences and overall widen our scope in terms of who we are debating and how each of them debates in their own way.  I have improved a lot during my time here at Capitol. When I first started Capitol, I had never debated before; I just wanted knew I wanted to debate, I knew I liked arguing with people, and I knew that my brothers had done this program before me. So I was gonna try it out, and when I first came in, I knew the concept of basic logic, but I didn't know how to really sell my ideas and my argumentation. But Capitol really taught me how to be a more well-rounded speaker and more persuasive person in general. It's not just about being right but also about proving to your opponents and your judge that you are right through ethos, pathos, logos, and selling it in more than just what you're saying but also how you're saying it. And how you're saying it can really play a crucial role which I wasn't 100% sure about before I came to Capitol.  I personally really enjoy the tournaments as a club member. I remember that as soon as I started, every time there would be a tournament, I would get all dressed up, and I would stay up the night before thinking about how I was going to review every single argument that my opponent could bring up. Granted, I couldn't quite prepare for everything that anyone would say, but I really like the formatting of it. We got a lot of rounds of a lot of different people, and we rarely repeated the same people and competitors so that we could debate against as many different people as possible.  To any students or parents, I would recommend Capitol Debate, especially because the format is really well-rounded in that a lot of different debate formats focus heavily on speaking style or argumentation, but Capitol Debate really offers a well-rounded format that gives you a combination of both. And Capitol Debate really helps you not just with becoming a better debater but overall becoming a more persuasive person and even if you're not going to pursue debate in your life Capitol Debate really offers you some personal skills that can be brought with you anywhere you go.