My son Gavin has been with Athens Debate since 4th grade, and we couldn't be happier with the experience. The program has helped him build a strong foundation in both public speaking and debate. Over the years, he's gained not only valuable speech and argumentation skills, but also confidence, critical thinking, and the ability to communicate effectively. When he started middle school, he transitioned into Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, and thanks to the outstanding coaching and supportive environment at Athens Debate, he quickly developed a real passion for it. He genuinely loves debating and always looks forward to practices and tournaments. The coaches are knowledgeable, dedicated, and truly care about each student's growth. They challenge students to think deeply while providing encouragement every step of the way. We're incredibly grateful for everything Athens Debate has done for our son and highly recommend Athens Debate to any family looking for an exceptional speech and debate program. read more

My sons learn speech and debate in Athens for 4 years. Athens offers an online opportunity as well as in person classes, easy to make up if missing classes, which is very convenient for the family with multiple children who need to schedule driving. I couldn't praise enough for Athens staffs, encouraging, friendly, and knowledgeable! They are not only debate coaches, they are role models for the children in how to interact with others with respect, consideration and compassion. The tournaments are super fun too! My boys love their in person tournaments where they can meet same age friends who also loves debate. A LOT of snacks in their in-person tournaments by the way. The trophies are big and nice. They really work very hard to leave the children life time memories. As a mother, I want to thank Athens for opportunity they provide and the dedication they show for children's growth! read more

Athens Debate - Specialty Schools Near Me - San Jose, California

My son has been a part of this program for the last 3 years because his high school does not have a debate team. He loves it as do we. The staff is organized, friendly, and provides multi levels of support. There are an enormous amount of resources available to the students including coaching, supplemental sessions both online or in-person, and additional materials. The program can be as simple or as complex as you'd like. The positive encouragement provided by the staff helps students succeed at all levels. They do an excellent job of keeping it fun especially in an environment where kids are working and competing under pressure. It is a great gateway to public speaking and higher levels of competition. The students are thinking critically about historical and current events, and moral issues. My son feels that he has learned so much more about these topics than from his classrooms. The CEO is phenomenal and thoughtfully engages with the parent community making himself readily available to answer questions and provide feedback. He is not just the business owner, but also very hands on and an experienced debater with great interpersonal and communication skills. Debate overall is a very complex program, but he can explain it and its ecosystem in an easy and digestible way. They have supported my son in not only excelling in their program, but also in helping us assess his talent and determine next steps. A++++ program. Just do it!!! ~ Caryn T read more

My two daughters (10 year old and 12 year old) attended Athens since the beginning of the year and they both enjoyed it. My older daughter was excited to join and she loves every aspect of it. The classes are engaging and fun, the tournaments are exciting, and most of all, she loves the people. She's made so many friends through this program, and the community is supportive and enthusiastic. She's also become a more confident speaker in just four or five months! We're definitely enrolling next year and I'm excited to see how else she grows. My younger one is shy and I did coerce her into doing it, so I am just happy that she enjoys the classes. I can tell she becomes more comfortable with public speaking. She participated in one debate tournament and did get into the final for Congress. I think that boosted her confidence. Overall, I highly recommend. read more

My son took this at his school as an after school program. 3x the cost of others and granted it 2x longer but they gave snack breaks and sometimes 2x recesses during the class. Teache gave debate topics like apple or banana???? Teacher also complained that boys weren't behaving.... aren't they supposed to know how to command a class especially of you're paying $1500. Absolutely a waste of time and money. Never again read more

Our two middle school kids joined Athens debate this year. We are incredibly happy with our experience and highly recommend signing up for those that are brand-new as well experienced with Speech & Debate. The company is extremely organized, fantastic with communication and create flexible experiences for busy families. They understand how to engage kids, support their development and also make the experience fun! We didn't know what to expect (we were totally new to Speech & Debate) but both of the kids grew tremendously in their skill set to organize their thoughts, conduct research, analyze information and most importantly, their confidence! We got to see them perform at multiple tournaments this year. These are all skills that they will need for the rest of their life and were not getting in a traditional school setting! We have been so impressed with Athens Debate that we signed up for summer camp, the full Fall semester and have recommend joining to our friends. read more

Our daughter has been with Athens for over 3 years. She always enjoyed speaking in front of others, but this program has unlocked her full potential. We chose Athens for a number of reasons, but it's the community that keeps our daughter there. All the coaches and tournament coordinators genuinely care about the students, and constantly go above and beyond to foster a healthy learning environment where students can thrive. Athens does a phenomenal job providing a foundational blueprint to track progress throughout the year. Supplementals, electives, and one-on-one sessions are all part of the program. There are endless opportunities to improve and get feedback in addition to the weekly classes. Our daughter takes advantage of all these resources, and it has served her well in tournaments. We give Athens our highest recommendation! read more

Our son had been with Athens for a few years. He had become one confident speaker and debater. Athens provides a lot of tournaments and the kids have plenty of opportunities to improve their learning in real practice. We love Athens so much and feel lucky that it is part of our kids' education! read more

I highly recommend Athens Debate. They offer a well-rounded, supportive environment for students looking to grow in speech and debate. My daughter has been attending for over 3 years, and we've seen a remarkable improvement in her confidence, structure, and overall delivery. She's sharpened her argumentation and research skills all thanks to the dedicated coaching and thoughtful curriculum. They provide event-specific supplementals before tournaments to help prep kids.They have a active Slack community where coaches and peers are always ready to answer questions and provide feedback. Athens also connects students to a wide range of high-quality tournaments, both online and in person, making it a great place to build skills and gain competitive experience. read more

Our daughters have been with Athens Debate for a couple of years now, and the growth we've seen has been amazing. Their confidence, critical thinking, and public speaking skills have all improved tremendously--not just in competition, but in everyday life. The instructors and administrators are top-notch. Sachin, Mike, Anand, Adam, Nicki and many other coaches are incredibly knowledgeable and also kind, patient, and great at pushing students to think deeper. The structure of the program is strong, with a good balance of challenge and support. Tournaments are well-run, the feedback is always thoughtful, and our daughters actually look forward to class each week. We're so grateful to the Athens team for creating such a supportive and enriching environment! read more

Not good for younger kids (10-11 year). My daughter found it very boring and refused to go after few months. My neighbors kid is also bored though they have continued hoping it improves. Complete waste of time and money. read more

My daughter has had an amazing experience at Athens. The teachers are experienced and fun. The students are motivated. The results are undeniable. I can't recommend it enough for a young person with interest in speech and debate. read more

Great educational environment that balances fun with learning! I worked there for 5 years and have firsthand seen my students grow in their critical thinking and public speaking skills - would absolutely recommend! read more

We cannot say enough about Athens debate. Their teaching method, instructors and fellow debaters come together to create a rigorous and joyful space. Not an easy feat. read more

Athens Debate Academy excels in comprehensive debate education, offering a wide range of debate styles. The faculty is exceptional, with Anand, the tournament director, standing out for his dedication and composure. His passion is particularly evident during tournaments, where he skillfully manages multiple student requests without losing his calm demeanor. Athens provides an abundance of resources and opportunities. Throughout the week, students can engage in various activities, including supplemental classes, electives, and specialized tournament preparation sessions. However, one drawback is the scheduling overlap of some classes, forcing students to prioritize and potentially miss out on certain offerings. Currently, Thursday appears to be the primary weekday for their regular sessions, which may limit accessibility for some students. Expanding class options to other weekdays would be great. Other than that minor gripe, we absolutely love being associated with Athens. read more

We love Athens debate. Our son participated for 2-3 years in grades 6-8 and benefited greatly. It was also a great way to spend constructive time with friends. Sachin, the leader, is beloved by the kids. He really inspires them to work hard. Debate helped our son learn about a number of current events and news topics as well as how to structure persuasive arguments. The opportunity to spend a day at a nearby college campus for a debate tournament was also a great treat and a fun opportunity for some independence and healthy competition. We definitely recommend Athens debate. read more

I wasn't able to work with Athens debate as they only coach kids and I have an adult who needs help but they were immediately responsive and helped me find the correct search term to locate exactly who I needed for help. Thank you Athens Debate! read more

I am more than impressed with the dedication, quality, and commitments from Athens Debate and their instructors. Besides the usual weekly sessions, they have many additional online practice sessions to make sure the students are as prepared and ready as possible for any future tournaments. In terms of communication with parents - they are very responsive to questions and are always there to listen to any feedbacks and suggestions. They also do a great job keeping parents in the loop of what's happening. I have both of my kids (Age 11, and 13) enrolled. One in the experienced class for a couple of years, and one in beginner class for a year. Thanks to Athens, both have demonstrated a lot more confidence in public speaking and doing persuasive speech or presentations. Highly recommend! read more

My 7th grader has been attending Athens Debate classes since Fall 2019. We are very impressed with the program overall and specifically the attention to students' overall development not just with debating but "opening their eyes" to current events, socio-economical topics, government and policies and moral choices. My son actually pays attention to my hour of Sunday news shows and sometimes offers a opinion! Debating is a life changing journey and Athens does it best. In addition to the 2 hour weekly classes (now online due to the quarantine situation but in classroom regularly), Athens offers: - dozens of weekly online lessons - loads of extra sessions before tournaments - an online video platform - top notch teachers with great education backgrounds - a strong community-culture - great results - round the clock availability for their students My son has not participated in tournaments but kids of our friends are participating and winning regularly - some who were somewhat shy in the not too distant past. Athens program also contributes towards overall reading, writing, communication and comprehension, in my observation as a parent and as an educator. I'd strongly recommend the program to any parent looking to develop their children into strong communicators and leaders. read more

My daughter started her journey with Athens last fall, and I could see her getting better very soon with her logical thinking, verbal, and written communication skills -- and of course debating skills. All the teachers are top notch with great educational backgrounds as you can see on the Athens website. With devoted founders/teachers (in Sachin and Cameron), Athens has strong community-culture, great results for everyone to see, and around the clock availability for students. Athens provides numerous opportunities for kids to learn -- with weekly online lessons on top of the standard 2 hour in-person class, and a lot of extra sessions before tournaments. As we all know -- Learning crucial life skills via debate (like good communication, critical thinking etc.) from passionate teachers would position students for future success in their professional and personal lives. I am so very fortunate that I chose Athens -- for my daughter to start learning these life skills. I can already see by the progress she made in a short period of time that it was an excellent decision that I made for her. I strongly recommend Athens for anyone looking for Speech and Debate education for their kids. read more

My son has been with Athens for the past two years. Our journey with debate and Athens is beyond words. Athens has created a platform where children are developing public speaking/debate skills at a very young age. My son looks forward to attending his weekend classes. The environment is friendly and children learn a lot by interacting with each other. Public speaking has become a life skill. The skills learnt here come a long way not just in school but in their day to day activities. My son loves going to the tournaments and its amazing to see the students support each other. Its not just about winning but getting better with each tournament. Over all we have had a great experience with Athens. The coaches are amazing and go above and beyond to make the children successful. read more

I would give Athens Debate more than 5 stars if I could. Attending this debate program has been a transformational experience for my middle schooler. I would like to provide some background so you can put the 5+ stars into context. My daughter had a keen interest in speech and debate very early on in elementary school. I enrolled her in a few local speech summer camps at that time. As she entered middle school, I found out about another debate coaching academy called Young Genius, and I enrolled her in that program. She started off the program very high on self-confidence, but sadly, very quickly her confidence came crashing down. The YG program was not well organized, didn't teach the fundamentals of debate at all, and pushed students into big league debate tournaments with no efforts made to develop and prepare each debater to take on a real debate. Within 4 weeks of joining the program and barely learning the terms of Lincoln-Douglas debate, they enrolled her into a big league debate tournament. I told them she is too new and perhaps she could just watch and observe the debate this time so she knew what to expect the next time. YG said no, she must do the tournament. Not knowing any better, I agreed and enrolled my daughter in it. The worst thing I ever did to her. The night before the tournament, she asked me what a contention is, what a value criterion is and what a value framework was. It was Greek and Latin to me, I said "do you need to know this for the debate tournament?" She said she didn't know if she needed it or not. Not surprisingly, she crashed and burned at that tournament, and developed such low self-esteem- it impacted the dynamics of our whole family. She barely went to any more classes for the rest of the year (the expensive pre-paid yearly tuition was ofcourse non-refundable). Then, the summer after that year, I saw that a new debate program was coming to town- Athens Debate was having an open house close to my house, and I asked my daughter if she wanted to go check it out. Her first reaction was NO, she said she's so bad at speech, she's so bad at debate, she's a loser etc etc etc. I convinced her to at least check it out, and we got some of her friends interested to go to the open house with her. That one-hour of the open house was the start of an amazing and fantastic journey that we are still on and will continue to be on. Sachin Jain, the founder of Athens debate, spent an hour with the kids at the open house, talking to them about speech and debate, asked them about their motivations and passions, and by the end of that hour, my daughter said, I want to join this program. After just one hour! There was a gleam in her eye, an excitement for speech and debate in her voice that I had sorely missed seeing in her. I enrolled her in the Athens program, and it surpassed all expectations. Sachin and his instructors spend a lot of time really understanding each kids' strengths and they build on those strengths, and really delve into areas of development for each kid- they try to make the kid the best version of themselves. Sachin doesn't treat everyone in the class the same, he takes the time to understand each debater, and instils in them the love for learning. There are several prep sessions for tournaments, 1-1 facetime sessions for any kid that needs that extra help outside of class time. Sachin is available any time, all the time. Now knowing what I know about LD debate (well, the little that I know), I was horrified to think back to the time when my daughter went to her very first tournament with YG, and the night before she asked me what a contention/value criterion/framework was- UGH! These are the ABCs of LD debate!! But now, thanks to Athens and thanks to Sachin, she is a confident speaker once again, she has also placed well in some tournaments this past year and is looking forward to starting up the program again in this new school year after a short summer break. She has made a ton of friends through the program and through attending tournaments that she will forever cherish. Also, YG used to charge a flat fee of $100- $200 for tournaments, on top of the yearly tuition. Athens charges only what the tournament charges each kid, Sachin does not add any $$ to this to put in his pocket, like YG did. Very honest, very passionate, very diligent, very caring, and above all, a top notch debate training experience- that's my experience with Athens. So- if you are considering a debate program for your child, look no further, just reach out to Athens and have a conversation with Sachin. The rest will take care of itself. read more

It's a great place for kids to learn superior debating skills. The first time my child went to the open house at Athens debate, she was beyond thrilled. Sachin (the founder) was able to transform 'debate' into a whole new world and make it fun. Originally, my child had always thought that debate was something that she could not do, because it was too complicated nor would she be good at it. Not just Sachin, but all the other coaches on the Athens team helped to bring out the strong debating qualities in her. To me, the only down side is that she now uses her superior debating skills against me too, at home! Sachin and his team surely did an amazing job :) Throughout the year, my daughter has become a more insightful and confident individual, a quality that has helped her in other avenues as well, all thanks to Athens! It's not just the in-class training that they focus on, but prior to each tournament there are additional online sessions scheduled to address any pre-tournament questions and each Athens debate coach will spend hours and patiently go over any last minute details, with each kid that signs up. This is not something that I encounter commonly. Below is my daughter's review in her own words: "I started debating at the beginning of the school year. The open house was extremely fun, but I was not sure if the classes would stay that way. For all I knew, everything could just be boring and not something I could do. As soon as I had stepped into class, I knew that I was wrong. This class was going to stay fun and interesting. I have seen Sachin, and all the other instructors in Athens help each and every individual until their case is polished and well done. Athens doesn't make stars, they make stars that shine. Sachin makes sure that you know the material and understand it, so you are not confused from the very start. Being a beginner at debate, I was quite nervous. But because Sachin made sure that I knew my case inside out, my nerves would always calm down. At my first tournament, I distinctly remember walking out and thinking that it was an amazing experience, something that I wanted to do every week! After my year was over, I really took a step back. I concluded that debate was and is a big part of my life, something that I will never forget, something that I always wanted to do. When asked by my parents if I wanted to do it next year and continue Athens the following school year, you can imagine my response. All thanks to Sachin and the Athens Team. If it weren't for Athens you could say my life would've been a whole lot different!" read more

Cannot say enough about this amazing program! Our daughter started here about 2 years ago (admittedly reluctantly), but in a short time, Debate has become an inseparable part of her life and something she is truly passionate about. It is one class she never wants to skip. The learning at Athens has been exponential--we as parents are in awe of these mature and articulate young adults. Sachin, Cameron, Nina and Kuhuk are exceptional instructors and top of their league debaters. Coaching is of the highest quality- provided through in person classes (before Covid) , DAILY online classes with Cameron and hours and hours of extra prep before tournaments (sometimes kids setting up their own practice debates! ). What I've appreciated most of all, is the culture at Athens--it is positive and encouraging. The focus is on learning and continuous improvement , through teamwork, effort, respect and collaboration --behaviors I've seen modeled by Sachin and Cameron, all while having loads of fun!! Thanks for been such positive and inspirational role models to these young debaters! Athens ROCKS!! read more

I can not say enough about Athen's Debate. Sachin Jain is so dedicated, talented, knowledgeable and great with kids. He inspires his group of students (elementary through high school) to do the best they can, as individuals. The kids put in many hours of on-line practice, over and above the scheduled weekly session. This was true before the virus moved everything strictly virtual. So, it was an easy transition. Since the Shelter in Place, even the tournaments have happened via Zoom, with great success. Over the past year, Athens debate has risen to a position of prominence in the debate community, usually far over-represented in the elimination rounds. But, the awards are actually secondary to the amazing life lessons and skills Sachin and his highly-qualified team are instilling in our kids. Each one of them is set to succeed in whatever career-path they choose. Also important, they enjoy each other's company and have fun together. read more