A record of Excellence
Since 2001, thousands of students have attended VBI, and collectively our students have gone on to reach levels of success that no other summer institute can match. That's why VBI is trusted by coaches, parents, and debaters across the country to provide the very best in debate education.
A record of Excellence
Since 2001, thousands of students have attended VBI, and collectively our students have gone on to reach levels of success that no other summer institute can match. That's why VBI is trusted by coaches, parents, and debaters across the country to provide the very best in debate education.
“In order to be super successful on the circuit, no matter which circuit, you have to go to VBI.”
More than 50 National Championships
Since the founding of VBI, our alumni have dominated every national title. Across multiple debate events, they have won
- The Tournament of Champions (TOC) 14 times,
- The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Nationals 18 times,
- The National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL) Nationals 14 times, and
- The National Debate Coaches Association (NDCA) Championships 11 times.
Other camps teach how to win rounds; we teach how to win championships.
VBI multi-summer alumni Shruthi Krishnan (Greenhill, VBI '15, '16, '17) and Brianna Aaron (Newark Science, VBI '17) after finals of Emory's Barkley Forum for High Schools
VBI is the only camp in the country whose alumni have closed out the Tournament of Champions in quarterfinals (i.e., all of the top 8 finishers), won every octafinals bid tournament, earned a majority of bids to the TOC, and won all four national championships in the same season.
Our alumni have had unprecedented success on every kind of debate circuit. They have won hundreds of national invitationals, round robins, and state tournaments across the country. VBI's success in many different styles of debate is enabled by our individualized curriculum and diverse faculty.
VBI teaches skills that foster success not only in competitive high school debate, but beyond. VBI alumni have gone on to win the American Parliamentary Debate Association National Championship, the World Universities Debating Championship, moot court competitions at top law schools, and multiple Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships. They have matriculated at every Ivy League university and have been named among Forbes' "30 Under 30." We could not be more proud of our alumni.
“The thing about VBI that makes it different is the number of people who are there all the time who are willing to work with you as much as possible to get you better. I think that it is just incredible, and is better than any other working environment or debate coaching that I have seen.”