The application depends on students' history of success in courses at LearningLeaders or other training organizations, competitive success at events and competitions, and their willingness to commit to excellence in our program.
The LearningLeaders Elite program for 9th-12th graders is hands down the most competitive and advanced level debate and public speaking training program for high school students globally.
Among the competitive achievements of students in the LearningLeaders Elite Program are: winning major U.S. competitions like the 2017 Berkeley Invitational, reaching the Grand Finals at EurOpen, multiple NSDA-China regional championships, multiple China National Championships, winning the World Schools Debate Championships (WSDC), reaching the Grand Finals of the World Individual Debate & Public Speaking Championships, reaching the Grand Finals at major international events like EurOpen, HKDO, Canton IV, China BP, and others. One would be hard-pressed to find a group of debate and public speaking students in the world who have had such incredible achievements across so many countries and in so many different formats of Public Speaking & Debate.
The Elite Program focuses on advanced skill development and competition preparation. The Elite Program is designed to prepare students to compete at the very highest levels of debate worldwide. This involves a step-by-step focus on the development of argumentation and refutation skills, strategy in several formats of debate, and the ability to debate the range of controversies and subject matter - politics, economy, international relations, morality/ethics, social issues, science and technology, religion - expected at the highest levels of competitive debate. The course will introduce World Schools Style and British Parliamentary debate formats. It will also prepare students to compete in high-level World Schools and British Parliamentary debate events.
The LearningLeaders Elite Program is the highest-level course in the LearningLeaders course progression. Students enter the program in one of the following ways:
- Completing the LearningLeaders course progression. The LL curriculum is designed to provide step-by-step skill development that builds confidence, critical reasoning, and public speaking skills from 5th grade through 12th Students who have completed the LearningLeaders course progression up to Distinguished Debate along with a Distinguished-level Public Speaking course are automatically placed in the Elite Program.
- Demonstrated excellence through extra-curricular participation. Though the LL Elite program is accessible to all students, there are some students who demonstrate readiness for the program prior to completing the LearningLeaders course progression. There are a number of opportunities for skill development outside of the regular training program that we encourage students to avail themselves of. The most effective of these opportunities is participation in outside competitions. If a student demonstrates exceptional skill and readiness through this participation they can be considered for early entry into the Elite Program. Chief among these demonstrated skills is the ability to deliver a 7-minute speech on a topic of significance with limited preparation time, Doris can help you schedule an Elite test with our coach.
It is important to remember for all students in the LearningLeaders community that entrance into the Elite Program is simply a matter of time and readiness. It is an opportunity available to all. We have carefully crafted our course placement process to ensure that students are placed in a course and with a group of students that positions them in their zone of optimal development. It does not serve a student well to be placed in a learning environment that they are not fully prepared to enter. In the case that a student is determined by the LearningLeaders coaches to not yet be ready for entrance into the Elite Program, we will provide a clear and explicit trajectory of what is necessary to enter the program and will support students fully on this trajectory!
If you would like to apply for the Elite program or learn more about the program, please contact Doris at doris@learningleaders.com.