Georgetown Policy Debate Seminar

Dates: June 28th – July 17th, 2026

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Why Georgetown?

  • Held onsite at Georgetown University’s beautiful main campus in Washington, DC.
  • Operated by GU’s national championship-winning Policy Debate Team and coaching staff.
  • Employs some of the very best instructors from both college and high school policy debate, with diverse backgrounds and a shared track record of competitive success at the highest levels.
  • We have a variety of different Policy Debate “tracks”. 
    • The three-week program is our main program and the one we recommend as we feel that this amount of time is needed for students to be well-prepared on the current policy topic. Within the three-week program there are three major tracks:
      • Novice – for students who are new to policy debate.
      • 2nd Year – for students who have had one-year of experience with policy debate.
      • Advanced – for students who have mastered the basics and are looking to develop and sharpen competitive skills.
  • The two-week program is primarily intended for local students who are unable to attend for three weeks.  It is designed specifically for students who participate on the UDL circuit.
    • THREE WEEKS – June 28th – July 17th, 2026
    • TWO WEEK SESSION 1 – June 28th – July 10th, 2026

The following prices reflect the total cost for attendees of our in-person camp, including room, board, deposit, and remaining tuition for residential students. Financial aid is available for those
with demonstrated financial need. Whenever possible, we encourage students to attend the full three weeks however we are willing to accommodate students who cannot attend all three weeks.

3 Week Program
$4,350.00 Resident

2 Week Program
$3,000.00 Resident

Faculty

Sam Price

Top 16 Debater at Macalester College

Sam Price and his partner Will finished in the Elite 8 of the 2025 National Debate Tournament after receiving a First Round At-Large Bid to the tournament.

Connelly Cowan

Top 16 Debater at Georgetown University

Connelly was awarded a First Round At-Large Bid to the 2025 NDT and was the 3rd overall speaker at the tournament. Connelly and her partner finished in the Elite 8 of the tournament. She also has won the 2025 Kentucky Round Robin, an invite-only tournament for the top 7 teams in the country.

Brandon Kelley

Director of Debate, Georgetown University

Brandon has been coaching collegiate debate at Georgetown for almost 10 years. He’s coached debaters who have reached the finals or won almost every major tournament in the country.

Samantha Godbey

Director of Debate, Fairmont State University

Dr. Samantha Godbey is the Director of the Civics Institute and Debate Coach at Fairmont State University. Previously, she was the Director of Debate at West Virginia University.

David Kilpatrick

Debate Coach, Emory University

Assistant Coach, Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy & The Harker School

David Kilpatrick is full-time teacher and coach at Harker. Prior to that, David was the Melissa Maxcy Wade debate and dialogue specialist for competitive debate at the Barkley Forum at Emory University, and a speech and debate coach at Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas and at the University of Texas-Austin. David coached the winner of the 2023 TOC as well as countless successful college teams to win nearly every tournament on the national circuit.

Will Kochel

Top 16 Debater at Macalester College

Will Kochel and his partner Sam finished in the Elite 8 of the 2025 National Debate Tournament after receiving a First Round At-Large Bid to the tournament.

Tim Mahoney

Director of Debate, St. Mark’s School of Texas

As a college debater, Tim advanced to the final round of 10 tournaments, winning seven of them. As a college coach his teams reached the elimination rounds at 9 consecutive CEDA National tournaments, and he qualified teams for the NDT every year after the merger. In his last year of college coaching, his top team was in the quarter finals of both the NDT and CEDA Nationals. His St. Mark’s teams have won or reached the final round of every major high school tournament including, Greenhill, Glenbrooks, Harvard, Berkeley, Westminster, TOC, NFL/NSDA, Emory, and the NDCA National Championships.

Danielle Verney-O’Gorman

Director of Debate, United States Naval Academy

Danielle O’Gorman has been the Director of Debate at the United States Naval Academy since 2005, where she also teaches in the Political Science department. She coaches teams at all levels of collegiate debate but particularly enjoys helping less-experienced debaters advance in skills and research ability. Prior to joining the Georgetown staff, she taught at the Gonzaga Debate Institute, the Liberty Debate Camp, and the Capitol Classic Debate Institute.