Throughout the school year, the Center for Afterschool, Summer and Enrichment (CASE) for Kids offers a platform for inner-city youth to be introduced to, study and thrive in debate. The free program – CASE Debates – partners with schools from Aldine, Alief and Spring Branch independent school districts and YES Prep Public Schools, offering training, networking and tournaments, including the Houston Urban Debate League’s City Championships.

But the partnership doesn’t stop during the summer months.

CASE Debates is helping high school students gain a competitive edge throughout June and July, while also opening the door to higher education. For the second consecutive year, the program provided scholarship funding for CASE Debates students to attend the University of Houston Honors Debate Workshop.

“If CASE didn’t do this, I wouldn’t have been able to be here,” said Emmanuel Adeleye, a senior at Alief Independent School District’s Early College High School. “I mean, there are free camps – after this, I’m going to do the Space City Camp, which is online – but I really appreciate the fact that I was able to have this opportunity and I didn’t have to break the bank.”

Added Maria Ledezma, a junior at Spring Branch ISD’s Westchester Academy for International Studies: “I’ve actually competed with some of the people here through CASE and that’s how I met them. That’s how I met my dormmate. So, I’m just really grateful to have this opportunity through CASE. If not, I think I’d just be watching YouTube videos.”

Hosted by the university’s Honors College and Debate Team from June 29 through July 25, the workshop offered intense two-week camps for Congressional, Lincoln-Douglas, Policy, Public Forum, Speech and Worlds School formats. Additionally, a four-week option for Policy and optional extra week for Public Forum practice rounds were offered.

CASE for Kids and the university partnered in providing scholarships to cover the cost for 30 CASE Debates students. In total, CASE for Kids provided $36,000 in funding, covering 70% of the workshop and UH covered the remaining cost.

UH and the debate program then went a step further, offering funds for two additional CASE Debates students.

“One of the things that we recognized is the University of Houston has a great debate program and there is the Urban Debate League that has been doing a lot of really good work and has a lot of students that are growing, finding their voice and finding their space,” said Rob Glass, director of speech and debate at the UH Honors College.

“And one of the things we want to do is give those students a pipeline to success in higher education and also give them extra resources to be able to succeed at where they are now.”

The Honors Debate Workshop brought in students from across the country in addition to those attending from across Houston. For those local participants, a commuter rate was available.

For residential campers, the option was about more than just staying in the campus dorms.

It was showing students – some maybe for the first time – the full components of the college experience. That included living in the Cougar Village dorms and eating in the Moody Dining Hall. Sessions were spread across multiple campus buildings.

Part of their camp experience included a college presentation from staff, from admissions and financial aid to different majors and campus life.

“For a lot of these students, they don’t come from a family background that includes college or higher education, so explaining to someone in abstract, why college is important can be difficult,” Glass said. “This is why it’s more than debate. It’s to help them grow and live in a space that’s not home. It’s for them to go to a dining hall, see a bunch of options and figure something out without asking mom and dad.

“It’s to give them a wholistic growth experience so at the end of the day, they can say they came out not just learning more as a debater, but as a wholistic person. It’s telling them bluntly, ‘You deserve this. You deserve the ability to have these opportunities, these resources and you should aim higher.’”

That wholistic experience is exactly what Ledezma saw after just a few days as a commuter participant. She quickly changed to residential and learned as much as she could to pass along to her Westchester Academy classmates when the school year began.

“You never really see the full picture in debate rounds when you’re competing,” Ledezma said. “So, once you’re able to talk through it with someone as knowledgeable as the instructors we have here, you’re actually able to make your cases stronger and think quicker during the rounds, instead of saying the same thing over and over again.”

Supporting camp participants were instructors who had recently walked the same path themselves. Among them were Nhung Nuynh, who competed in debate while at Alief Elsik High School and earned a prestigious top-15 national ranking in World Schools Debate.

“Every time I see a student here that is trying to learn new things, it reminds me of myself,” said Huynh, an incoming freshman at the University of Texas. “I received a lot of help and I know how much that impacted me so I wanted to do the same for other students. The other thing for me is being here keeps you in the community of debate.”

The positive feedback from attendees reinforces the program’s success and its approach to connecting students with possibilities not seen before.

“One of the things we want to do, and I think CASE wants to do so we’re in complete alignment, is to tell these students who have so much potential that we’re going to be there and we’re going to give you the lift to get you where you know you can go,” Glass said. “That’s where the vision of CASE, debate and UH Honors Debate comes together for the students and it’s an endpoint that really is productive and you don’t have anywhere else in the Houston area.”