What Makes Apologetics Club So Wonderful? by Sarah Fox and Jonathan Marsalis

New to Apologetics? No problem. No Apol. Club? We have you covered! Do you belong to a Club, but you want to grow with believers from around the country? Lasting Impact! is where both Stoa and NCFCA students will be at Monday evenings. This will be a time of growing and encouraging one another in Him. Check out the details HERE or read on what makes Apologetics Club so wonderful…

If an unbeliever asks you, “Was Jesus a socialist?” how well could you answer? If an atheist makes you question your faith, could you give a logical defense? If a Muslim asks you to compare and contrast their religion with your own then defend it, could you? 

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Tips for (Summer) Success in Speech and Debate

The Speech and Debate Season is upon us! Wait!? Isn’t it still summer!? You still have plenty of time to prepare, right!? Yes! But there are ways to make the season a little bit easier for everyone involved (especially the parents), if you would just put a little time into summer prep! What can you be doing NOW to benefit your Speech and Debate Season? Good question… I’m glad you asked!

  1. Go to Camp! This is where the excitement and energy happens! There are in person Speech and Debate Camps happening all over the country! Get there! Trained coaches who have already dug in to get you up to speed, new connections and relationships to be formed, inspiration for the up coming year… the list can go on and on. If you aren’t signed up for camp- do it now! Check out the Lasting Impact! Camps waiting for YOU!
  2. Schedule a Coaching Session. Oh yes, I have already started coaching! Summer sessions are the best! Exploring options, bouncing ideas off of a mentor or coach… sounds like progress to me! And anytime progress is being made, means less pressure later! No body likes coming up with a last minute idea! Scheduling a session with a coach can ensure progress and accountability! Schedule a Coaching Session today with one of our Speech or Debate Coaches today!
  3. Purchase a Guide Book, Sourcebook, or other Speech and Debate Resources. There’s nothing like a little motivation to get you going. These are the perfect start to get you on your way! Lasting Impact! will be rolling out their latest resources in the next couple weeks- including our TP Sourcebook and LD Guide!! Exciting stuff to jump start your research for the new resolutions!!
  4. Set Goals. What do you want to accomplish this year? Have you thought about it? Mapping out your season or timeline will help you achieve your goals. Be realistic. Once those fall and winter activities start coming into play, how much time will you be able to dedicate to Speech and Debate? Make sure you include others in your goals or quest, this will ensure you have a team of support to help you get where you want to go!
  5. Make a List of Ideas. Start a list NOW! Keep the list handy. Put in on your phone, in a notebook, on your bulletin board. Explore the list in your free time, at least once a week, or even better yet, once a day. Do you want to do an Interpretive Speech? What books should you check out of the library? What ideas are you exploring for your Persuasive or After Dinner? What is a list of themes that God is nudging you to dig deeper into? My list is on-going. It never stops! I urge you to start list and start making progress before the summer is over!
  6. Last but not least, have you signed up for a Speech or Debate Club or Class? Your local club may be filling up! I know Lasting Impact! Clubs and Classes are! Joining a club can be the perfect accountability, extra encouragement or motivation! Check out our options – Speech Basics, Platform Writing, Debate Readiness, Lincoln Douglas for Beginners, Intermediate LD, Team Policy with Breda Storz and Marc Davis, Limited Prep Crash Course, and MORE! Lasting Impact! Online Clubs and Classes have experienced coaches guiding you along the way! Check out all our options for Classes and Clubs HERE!

Lasting Impact! has been blessed to come alongside thousands of Speech and Debate students through the years, and we can’t wait to meet the next generation to come!

Mars Hill Boot Camp with Camille Floyd

Whether your preparing for NITOC or for next year… come learn more about this AWESOME Speech Category with the one and only, Camille Floyd. Sign up for her two night Workshop May 19 and 21. The sessions will be recorded. See the link below… In the mean time read Camille’s perspective on why Mars Hill is one of the most important Speech Categories…

Have you ever sat down with a stranger and talked to them about their anxiety? Have you ever told a random person about the power of forgiveness? 

    Yeah, ok. Probably not. I know I wouldn’t be comfortable in those conversations and we can all imagine how uncomfortable the other person would be. But those conversations are important, right? And sharing with people the information we have about our faith and our purpose in life is what we are called to do? 

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Lasting Impact! New Line Up- 2021 Fall Speech and Debate Clubs and Opportunities

I know it sounds crazy, but are you ready for fall!? There is something exciting about the planning process that I absolutely love! Therefore, I thought you might like a hint as to what is in store through Lasting Impact!

Online Speech Club –

Meet with students from across the country learning together the Art of Communication. Lead by Heather Neumann, the Ms Frizzle of the competitive speech world. This one semester club will meet weekly, and teach valuable lessons to implement into Speech and Debate. Each student will perform and have a speech ready by the end of the semester.

Interp Club – NEW

Grow your interpretive skills with this new innovative club. Students will grow through a variety of experiences- cold reading, monologues, play reading, prose, and much more. Students will also be preparing an interpretive piece used for competition. This club will meet weekly, first semester and is lead by Heather Neumann.

Apologetics Club –

Come and grow and figure your out how you would answer questions of your faith. Weekly meetings include elements of learning how to compete in Apologetics, but mostly diving into how one would answer such questions as explain the meaning and significance of the trinity, why does God allow evil, etc.

Limited Prep Club –

Who couldn’t benefit from learning to think on their feet better. This unique club will explore the elements of putting together your thought process. The main focus of this club will be Impromptu Speaking, but other Limited Prep events will be covered.

Debate Clubs –

As always, Lasting Impact! plans to offer both beginning and advanced Debate Clubs for both Team Policy and Lincoln Douglas Debate.

The Debate Circuit –

Yes! The Circuit will be back! Weekly rounds via Zoom to help your cases get refined. There will also be an outrounds included. The Circuit starts late Sept and ends before Thanksgiving.

Junior Opportunities –

Speech and Debate doesn’t need to start in High School. Lasting Impact! will also be offering Order in the Court again with Julie Romeo, Beginner Speech – for students ages 9-12, and Debate Readiness with Amy Eichholz.

In addition to all of these fantastic clubs we have a plethora of information for families, club leaders, and coaches. We are putting together NEW worksheets and videos to help simplify the teaching process. We are excited for what the 2021-22 has in store! Whether you are online or in person, Lasting Impact! aims to have the resources you need to succeed! Registration will be opening up SOON! Space will be limited.

Don’t forget Summer Camps are right around the corner!! Contact us if your club wants to have the Lasting Impact! Team come your way!! Please contact us if your have any questions!!

Impact Tip! Don’t Forget Philosophy in Lincoln Douglas Debate By: Caleb Sampson

Lasting Impact! is going to run a new series in 2021 called Impact Tips! Today’s tip comes from Caleb Sampson. He’s running an LD Workshop next week to help you bring your A-game to your Lincoln Douglas Debate. The workshop will discuss the relevance of this year’s NCFCA resolution and the proper use of philosophy, legislation, case law, historic examples, logic, and analogies. This is a Workshop LDers don’t want to miss! In fact, if you sign up now, we will throw in the Lasting Impact! LD Guide FREE. Sign up HERE or keep reading to see his Impact Tip!

What is the most essential yet underappreciated application in Lincoln Douglas Debate?

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas faced off in a series of 7 debates about the issue of slavery in the United States. While both men were esteemed politicians and policy makers, these Lincoln Douglas debates didn’t focus on the intricate details of legislation or the ins and outs of constitutional law. Fundamentally, these debates focused on the values of Americans and the underlying philosophies that led the American People to those value systems.

The most essential yet underappreciated application in Lincoln-Douglas Debate is philosophy…

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Sign Up for a Lasting Impact! Winter Workshop this weekend- FREE Coaching Session!

Happy New Year! Now is the time to keep moving forward!! That’s right- if you sign up for one of our Winter Warm Up Workshops today or tomorrow- you will receive a FREE Coaching Session with the coach of your choice! Choose from…

More Winter Workshops may be added in the weeks to come- but now is the opportunity to jump on this offer! Simply order a Winter Workshp and you will receive a FREE Coaching Session (coaching session must take place this winter/spring 2021 season). Go to the SHOP under OnLine Classes to sign up, or click HERe, or click the links above. Remember, Workshops are recorded at no additional charge.

Cyber Monday Sale – Buy 2 Coaching Sessions – Get 1 FREE!!!

This offer is only good today! Purchase 2 coaching sessions – get 1 FREE!! Mix and match coaches. Use the coaching for the ultimate tournament prep, or spread it out during the season. Our coaches are excited to help you better prepare- for whatever lies ahead!

Check out our Lasting Impact! Team and Coaches HERE.

Purchase your sessions HERE. Just purchase two, and we will add the third for FREE!!

*Sessions must be used for the 2020-21 Season. Sorry, not valid for Club Coaching.

Expectations From an Online Tournament from Lasting Impact! By: Thaddian Burson

I could say it a thousand times: Adaption to online tournaments will be essential for the upcoming debate season! Raise your hand if you want to try out online debate for the first time at an actual tournament with check marks or at-large points in the balance? No hands? I agree.
The speech and debate world is undergoing a huge shift to try and balance speech and debate while protecting people’s lives. This shift is towards online debate. As students, we can choose to either resist it and just hope that something changes, or embrace it and learn to adapt. I am with most of you in that my initial gut reaction to online debate was: “Yuck!” Yet, after participating in several online tournaments, one of which was hosted by Lasting Impact!, my perspective has entirely changed. I believe that online tournaments provide a more than viable way to continue speech and debate in the Covid era.

Lasting Impact! is offering a chance to prepare for these online tournaments in the form of their Fall Circuit. It starts Sept. 28, 2020. Go to www.impacttournaments.com for more info or to register. In the meantime here are some expectations that you can have for this circuit and future Impact Tournaments…

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From Virus to Virtue (The Need For Lifetime Debate) by: Laurie Dawson

Laurie Dawson went from teaching a couple Lincoln Douglas Debate students to 40! This year, she is teaming up with Lasting Impact! to create two LD Clubs for Stoa. She has a passion to help students become life long thinkers. Laurie’s approach as a coach is innovative and heavily focused on personal engagement, aiming far beyond the high school debate realm and into adulthood. Passionate about teaching students to think and reason for themselves, Laurie believes competitive debate catalyzes both intra- and interpersonal development. The skills Laurie refined in business and non-profit leadership are the same skills imparted to her Lincoln Douglas debaters:
– to assess, research, and organize large amounts of information
– to employ traditional logic when constructing and deconstructing arguments
– to reason and persuade whilst maintaining moral and ethical integrity
Laurie coaches toward the mastery of these foundational skills and then builds upon them – line up on line. Her modern approach to classroom learning has resulted in many, even first year debaters, becoming national qualifiers…

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Online Apprehension For Speech and Debate? By: Stacy Edmond

The concept of online speech & debate clubs, classes and tournaments, were, not too long ago, just about unheard of. Now, they are our new reality. Until recently, I was one of the many that thought the whole notion of any of our beloved speech & debate activities being done online, absolutely absurd and totally impossible. Boy, was I wrong…

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Last Week to Register – Online Clubs, Classes, and Tournament Circuit

It’s been a fantastic summer!! Yet, we are ready to see what God has in store for us NEXT! The question is, are you?!? This fall Lasting Impact! is bigger than ever – online clubs, classes, and tournaments! Classes and Clubs start the week of or after Labor Day. The Online Tournament Circuit starts the end of the September. Be sure you register today! Want to learn more information about these online opportunities – read on…

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Imagination by: Denise Montgomery

Denise Montgomery has a passion for literature, speech and debate, and English. Which is why she created Creativity for English and Beyond – one of the CLASSES offered through Lasting Impact! this fall. Did you know Lasting Impact! offers over 20 different opportunities to connect through classes and clubs? Check them all out in the SHOP. I hope you hear Denise’s heart in this article…

Being creative can be duck soup if we allow ourselves to be free. Ah, and therein is placed the stumbling block: free.

Imagine this: you wake up and see the day through a child’s eyes, experiencing everything of the day in the miraculously free way a child can. Wow! Sign me up for that day of days gone by…

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