Get Involved!
Join hundreds of your neighbors making a difference with students in your community!
Volunteering for an urban debate league is a great way to make a large impact in a short amount of time. Every volunteer judge allows for 4 more students to participate, and the feedback you provide is crucial to their development. Can’t volunteer this time? Check out our schedule to find a different date.
Sign Up to Judge an Upcoming Debate
Judging Debate
Judging debate is the core of the volunteer program at WUDL. A judge is required for every 4 participants in a tournament, so the more judges we have, the more schools we can recruit and the more students we can work with.
The Requirements:
- A willingness to listen and take notes as students argue their positions and to give 1-2 minutes of constructive feedback after the round.
- Fill out a short background check (see below)
Judging does not require a background in debate. Our judge pool is a diverse array of people from students to retirees, with all sorts of different personal and professional backgrounds.
Coaching Debate
The Urban Debate Theory of Change is centered upon teacher-coaches, where a teacher or other school employee takes the lead recruiting students, holding practices, and attending tournaments with their students.
Assistant coaches can, however, play a vital role in the UDL process. Assistant coaches generally have a background in debate and are paired with a partner school based on need. Assistant coaches offer advice and training to students and helping the teacher learn more about being a debate coach.
Most of our programs hold their meetings either during the lunch hour or after school, so the ability to attend practices during these time periods is a necessary component to being an assistant coach.
Additionally, coaches are expected to adhere to spirit of Urban Debate. We want to build large, diverse, broad-based teams of students to develop their skills and enhance educational outcomes for our debaters.
Judge Training Resources:
This 101 course goes over the basics for those who don’t have a debate background, and/or haven’t judged before. This course will cover the the structure and flow of a debate round, how to fill out the ballot, and the basics of strategy and the use of evidence in policy debate
This 101 course goes over the basics for those who haven’t judged before. It will cover the structure and flow of a debate round, how to fill out the ballot, and how to provide feedback for the young people about their argumentation.
We offer this training on site every tournament day during breakfast (for our all day and morning shift folks) and during lunch (for our afternoon shift folks). We also host trainings for corporate partners, civic groups, and other institutional volunteer groups on request before tournament day.
This course is designed for those who have judged several tournaments and are ready to learn more, or for former debaters looking for a refresher course. Our goal is to provide the best feedback possible to our students to help them grow, improve, and prepare our varsity students for regional travel.
This program will also be offered at every local tournament at breakfast and lunchtime.
Not sure what to expect from the student’s arguments this year? Interested in brushing up on this year’s topic? We’ve created a brief to get you started.
Please excuse our dust as we update this section
Please excuse our dust as we update this section
Debaters sometimes create their own terms, a shorthand that helps them organize their thoughts. Here is a cheat sheet of common terms you might here.
Coming soon!
Tournament schedules generally follow the following format, unless specified otherwise:
8:15-8:45 AM: Breakfast, Registration, and Judge Training—Please be prompt!
9:00-10:45 AM: Round 1
11:00-12:45 PM: Round 2
12:45-1:30 PM: Lunch and Judge Training
1:30-3:15 PM: Round 3
3:30-5:15 PM: Round 4
5:30 PM: Awards Ceremony
Intro to Judging Video
Please excuse our dust as we refresh this material — the above video refers to a previous season’s topic, but is otherwise a great resource to watch before you judge your first tournament
Volunteers of the Year
WUDL is a volunteer driven organization — we couldn’t do it without the help of a dedicated, invested community. Thankfully, we have a very robust volunteer program that has been recognized by the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues for the size and commitment of our volunteers.
Every year, we give out the Volunteer of the Year Award to recognize the contributions of the individual(s) who have gone above and beyond to support WUDL and debate in the D.C. area. This award is chosen by the students themselves from among our most frequent volunteers.
Dennis is the second WUDL Alumni to be named Volunteer of the Year. Chosen by a vote of our students (and heartily supported by our staff), Dennis has contributed in a wide range of ways this year. First, he’s the first volunteer to coach two(!) schools in the same season, College Park Academy, and Columbia Heights.
Paris is the first WUDL Alumni to be named Volunteer of the Year! Paris, the long-time captain of the Charles Flowers debate team, was a student coach before graduation, and has taken to coaching naturally afterwards. On sabbatical from Duke University, Paris has jumped into supporting WUDL with both feet.
WUDL partners with the Matthew Harris-Ornstein Memorial Foundation each year for our summer debate program. Matthew was a mentor of Jess's as a high school debater, and she is now the Executive Director of the Foundation dedicated to preserving his legacy.
Katie, a former extemp and speech kid from Ohio, has volunteered with the Washington Urban Debate League for several years, first as a judge and then as a coach at Capital Hill Montessori, and later at Stuart Hobson.
Maggie, a former debater from New Jersey, has volunteered with the Washington Urban Debate League since her freshman year at George Washington University.
2018-2019 Guillermo Vidaurre Guillermo has volunteered with the WUDL for years, serving in every capacity from tab to hospitality and travel team. …
2017-2018 Kathy Beckman Kathy is the grandmother of one of our debaters, formerly of Banneker High School. She has served as a judge …
2016-2016 Jon Alfuth Jon is a former Teach For American teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. He coached debate at Soulsville Charter, and became the …
2016-2017 Patrick McMullen Patrick was an ethics attorney on Capitol Hill before returning to private practice. He is a former debater and …
2015-2016 Richard Day Richard is a former debater from Chicago who attended Georgetown University, reaching elimination rounds of the NDT twice. He judged …