Whitman Debate
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Welcome to Whitman Debate!
Debate changes the way Whitman's coaches and students see the world and engage with it. Debate is a place where we find a home and a social circle. A place where we learn to respectfully discuss our ideas while building community. Join Whitman Debate!
Our Program
Whitman Debate relies heavily on the mentorship model. First, coaches teach students how to debate, be competitively successful, and make connections between debate and the classroom. Second, students mentor each other so new debaters don't feel intimidated.
Our Community
While we love debate, we also value making the team a space where students can find a social support network. We welcome anyone and everyone regardless of experience level, year in college, or willingness to travel to tournaments. We encourage our team members to invite friends to debate events on campus, host public debates, volunteer in the community and plan "Debate a Friend" meals. We strongly believe competitive success comes easier when you foster a team culture of group accountability, public service, social support, productive dialogue across differences and plain old fun.
Scholarship Opportunities
The scholarship application consists of four parts:
- A letter describing your experience in speech and debate
- A letter of recommendation from a debate coach
- An example of your work in debate (part of a file)
- A brief statement on why you wish to participate in debate at Whitman
To maintain this scholarship, recipients are required to participate in Whitman's debate team for the duration of their time as a student.
Students should submit their scholarship applications with days of submitting their Common App.
If you are applying Early Decision, your scholarship application is due five days after the Common App deadline. If you are applying for regular decision, you have until Jan. 24, 2022, to get your scholarship application in!
Early Decision I Talent Scholarship: Nov. 20, 2021
Early Decision II Talent Scholarship: Jan. 15, 2022
Regular Decision Talent Scholarship: Jan. 24, 2022
If you have any question, please contact Jesse Crosby at crosbyj@whitman.edu.