Classic Debate Camp LD Houses

In 2022, the Lincoln-Douglas division added a new house system to Classic Debate Camp. All the LD campers were assigned to 4 different houses, named after 4 important individuals in the history of CDC: James Lewis, Jen Gonda, Natalie Schaller, and Edith Lui. In 2024, we added two new houses, named after Isaiah Paik (the founder of the CDC LD House System) and Katie Blowers (4-year LD Instructor and LD Curriculum Coordinator). Watch the videos of the introductions of each house's namesake below to learn more about how each person impacted and contributed to CDC. 

 

The objectives of the house system are to

1. increase collaboration among campers in different labs, since each house contained members of all the LD labs

2. give older campers opportunities to practice leadership

3. encourage younger campers to interact with and learn from older campers 

4. use LD division time more actively and productively

5. make our camp tournament more competitive and fun by having houses compete with each other for the House Cup.

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By all accounts, the new house system has been a great success. Because campers wanted more time to work with their housemates than just during division meetings, they organized their own prep sessions during evening office hours. During the camp tournament, house members got together and collaborated between rounds. After each round, campers paid close attention when house cup points were posted, and everyone cheered for their houses!

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The 2024 Classic Debate Camp LD House Cup was won by Gonda House with a total of 50 points. They had the camp tournament champion (Neil Heckman), a semifinalist (Chris Rhodes), a quarterfinalist (Addy Gerbick), and an octafinalist (Salma Fareed). Chris Rhodes also won a Competitors' Choice award. Congratulations to all the members of Gonda House and to their house advisor Abby Poprocki! ​Schaller House came in 2nd place with 48 points, Edith House came in 3rd with 40 points, the new Isaiah House was 4th with 36 points, Lewis House was 5th with 31 points, and the new Katie House was 6th with 29 points. 

 

The 2023 Classic Debate Camp LD House Cup was won by Schaller House. Schaller House had two quarterfinalists as well as the tournament champion. But more significant in their final point tally, Schaller House also had one Most Improved Lab Member and two winners of the Competitors' Choice Award! The 2023 staff advisor of Schaller House was Owen Tilman. 

 

The 2022 Classic Debate Camp LD House Cup was won by Edith House. Members of Edith House not only won 1st and 2nd place in the camp tournament, three of them also received Most Improved Lab Member awards. The 2022 staff advisor of Edith House was Olivia DeCesare.