Hello,

Beyond Resolved is currently campaigning for donations from individual donors. We are an organization aimed at providing accessible resources (prep, coaching, internet), especially for students that face barriers to participating in debate. If you would like to know the specifics on what BR does to alleviate barriers, you can read about our current projects below:

1. Providing free or low-tuition coaching and education nationwide: Debate coaching usually costs around $20-30/hour and in-person summer camps cost around $2,500-5,500; BR provides free coaching and team resources, a summer program, and free/low cost tournaments.

2. Providing reliable Internet access: Most debate research is done online through the Internet; additionally, most (all) tournaments have been moved online for this competitive season. Thus, BR is currently raising money to provide ethernet cords to competitors who cannot access high speed internet required for competitions with sufficient audio quality, video quality, and email chains.

3. Providing scholarships/funding to debaters who struggle with required tournament fees (entry/judging/travel fees): Entry fees alone can cost from $30-50 per local tournament and can easily go up to around $100 for a national one. Tournaments also obligate debaters to provide judging for the tournament; hiring a judge usually costs about $100 at the national level. Tournaments do usually hand out financial aid, but it is  limited and distributed on a case-by-case basis. Beyond Resolved is actively looking to provide scholarships this year, but still needs the funding to do so. Funds for travel and hotels are not currently an issue given the pandemic, but will continue to be so next year.  

Provided below is additional information on inequality in debate as well as the benefits that debate can yield:

As outlined above, costs to debate can make it inaccessible to many families — particularly for debate at the highest, most prestigious, national level. Wealthy students, especially ones from private schools are the overrepresented. An 2018 analysis of qualifiers to the Tournament of Champions found that 45% (over 4X the national average of 10%) of qualifiers were from private schools. The median tuition of these schools were half the national median income. Analysis of the location of public schools found that not a single qualifier came from a region where the median income was more than $2,000 below the national median: in fact, over 80% of competitors were from areas with medians at least $2,000 above the median. 

Debate is an activity that inherently improves intellectual capabilities, most notably: communication, research, and critical thinking. It not only educates students on important world issues, but also teaches them how to speak publicly, think independently, listen to others, and advocate for themselves and others. Research compiled by the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues shows that just participating in a debate program for a semester raises students’ grades, increases college readiness, and increases the likelihood that a student will attend a four-year college. These benefits are inaccessible to students who are marginalized because of cost barriers. Reducing structural cost barriers not only benefits marginalized debaters, but also debate as a whole. In an activity that aims to teach students how to determine the most valuable policies and to examine all perspectives, it is only right that students from all backgrounds should be heard.

If you are able to do so, please consider donating however much you feel comfortable with. 

Please note that this donation is not tax-deductible.

*contact for further inquiries 

Sarah Li - lisar000@mysbisd.org

Zara Chapple - contact.beyondresolved@gmail.com