Mentees must be in middle school or high school. Juniors and seniors who do not wish to mentor may apply as mentees.
Mentors must be juniors and seniors. Rising sophomores who have qualified to the TOC, NSDA, NCFL, or an equivalent as freshmen may request an age exemption by emailing womenindb8@gmail.com.
Nope! It's completely free!
Mentors and mentees are paired based off of shared interests, geographical location, and experience. For example, a mentee living in the Northeast who is interested in learning policy-based arguments will be paired with a mentor in the Northeast who specializes in policy arguments.
Mentees with specific argumentative preferences for their location may be paired with a mentor from a different region, but we try to minimize the chance of this as much as possible.
Anyone who has cleared at a bid-distributing tournament, qualified for one or more national tournaments (TOC, NSDA, NCFL, etc.), or has significant teaching experience in debate is eligible to be a mentor. Good teachers are not always good debaters, and therefore, we only ask that you feel comfortable teaching novice-to-JV-level students.
Mentees, once paired, will be invited to join the Women in Debate Slack. From there, mentees will be contacted by their mentor either by Slack or by email, where they will meet weekly until the end of the debate season. Mentees will be invited to all related Women in Debate events, such as lectures, webinars, and drill sessions.
If you are a mentee and you can't meet once a week, you can still sign up for W.in! Your mentor will help you find meeting times that work for both of you.
Mentors, once paired, will be invited to join the Women in Debate Slack. Mentors are expected to behave in a professional manner toward their mentees, communicate via approved channels only (e.g., Slack), and report to their regional coordinators once a month. Mentors will be eligible to write blogs for W.in, lead lectures, and volunteer for the organization.
Women in Debate is not responsible for any mentor-mentee communication that occurs outside of official channels.
Women in Debate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, meaning we are able to approve of volunteer hours. Mentors who wish to have their hours approved must report to their regional coordinator to log their hours monthly.
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