1.

Student's Name: Milan Doshi

2. Coach's Name: Susan Wasylina

3. School and Location (city and state): Elkins High School, Missouri City, Texas

4. Grade you will be entering for the 2010-2011 school year: 10th grade

5. Have you previously attended any debate camps? Please tell us which camps, when you attended, and who were your lab instructors. I attended the Teas Debate Collective the winter of 2009 for 3 days and my instructors were Ryan Graham, Kris Wright, and Vikas Gupta.

6. Please describe your debate experience. Tell us how many years you have competed in LD and approximately in how many tournaments in novice, junior varsity (some tournaments in different parts of the country have this division), and varsity. It is very important that you are clear as to if your experience was novice, JV, or varsity to help us best understand your background. Also describe to us any experience you have in other forensics events. Please be clear and detailed so that we can get an accurate picture of your experience. I have competed in LD for one very steady year by competing in 14 tournaments. I competed in 4 novice tournaments and after finishing 1st at spring woods, moved up to varsity for the last 10 tournaments of the year. I did a little bit of foreign/domestic extemporaneous speaking but never got any state points.

7. Please give us your record at your five best tournaments this past year. Please tell us your preliminary record, elimination round reached if it applies, and division (novice, JV, or varsity). Here is an example: Hockaday TFA Tournament, 3-1 prelims, octofinals, varsity LD. Spring Woods TFA Tournament 3-0 prelims, finals winner, novice LD, 7-0 (whole tournament) Lamar Consolidated TFA Tournament, 3-0 prelims, quarterfinals, novice LD, 4-1

Clear Brooks TFA Tournament, 2-1 prelims, semifinals, varsity LD, 4-2 Lamar Houston TFA Tournament, 3-0 prelims, octofinals, varsity LD, 3-1 Cypress Ridge TFA Tournament, 2-1 prelims, octofinals, varsity LD, 2-2 Overall year Novice (4 tounaments): 15-5 Varsity (10 tournaments): 18-22

8. Describe the debate style in your region. If you are from Texas, tell us if your team focuses more on TFA or UIL or both. Does your team travel or stay in its region? Also, tell us if you plan to compete at TOC tournaments next year. If you plan to travel, please tell us where you hope to go. I think my team focuses a lot more on TFA because we did only one UIL tournament this year. We stay mostly in the southwest region of Texas, however we did go to the University of Texas tournament. We had two over night tournaments this year. If not next year, then probably junior year. Still a possibility for next year.

9. Describe your strengths as a debater. If you have previous debate experience, please tell us what you think are the primary reasons you are winning rounds and describe the types of judges in front of whom you are most successful. I think the primary reasons I win rounds is probably because I can connect with the judge on the persuasive side if it is a lay judge and if a flow judge then I hardly have any drops.

10. Describe your weaknesses as a debater that you hope to improve upon at camp. If you have previous debate experience, please tell us what you think are the primary reasons you are losing rounds and describe the types of judges in front of whom you are least successful. I think I start losing rounds when technical things that I have no idea about are being brought up such as theory or different philosophers and their philosophies. I think I may have trouble being everywhere and not being able to focus into a few arguments that are most important in the round. Also, another weakness is probably my rebuttals which are usually weak but depend on round to round scenarios.

11. What are your competitive goals for next year? What do you hope to achieve? Are there any specific types of arguments or skills you want to study at camp that aren't discussed above? My goal for next year is to place in out rounds in as many varsity tournaments as possible, make it to state, possibly to nationals, and if within reach, get just one TOC bid. I want to learn a lot more on the technical side of debate, such as theory or philosophy, the ins and outs of writing a case, cutting cards, using evidence at the right time and what type of evidence. Different shells, counterplans, kritiks and what those are actually.

12. Place yourself in one of the following categories and explain why you placed yourself there.

BE HONEST in answering this question. The goal is for you to learn and improve this summer so that you are more successful next year. You don't want to be in a lab that is either below your skill level or over your head, making it difficult for you to follow instruction. You will get the most out of camp and improve the greatest if you are properly placed and don't feel overwhelmed. Every year, we have some kids who insist on being in a higher level lab than is appropriate. These students don't get as much out of camp and usually don't do as well the following year as students placed below them with more appropriate instruction. Our teachers are highly qualified from top to bottom at UTNIF. We do not only put our best people at the top. I strongly believe that younger debaters often need the strongest teachers. I am convinced, for example, that we have by far one of the strongest novice labs in the country because of the quality of our teachers at this level. We've consistently had kids go on from our beginning and intermediate labs to qualify for their state championships the next year, as well as NFL Nationals. So, don't be shy about telling us your accomplishments but also be truthful about what you need so we can best help you.

In making your choice from the options below, remember to explain why you placed yourself where you did. These descriptions are guidelines:

A: Advanced, Level 1 -- You have qualified for championships before, such as your state championship (TFA State or UIL State in Texas), NFL Nationals, or TOC. At these championships, you have accomplished a winning record or made it into

elimination rounds. You've competed in LD for 2-3 years already, attend tournaments often, and make it into late elimination rounds most weekends.

B: Advanced, Level 2 -- You have qualified for championships before, such as your state championship (TFA State or UIL State in Texas), NFL Nationals, or TOC. Once at these championships, you've struggled and haven't acheived the record you hoped. You've competed in LD for 2-3 years already, attend tournaments often, and make it into early elimination rounds most weekends and late elimination rounds some weekends.

C: Varsity, Level 1 -- You've competed in debate 2-3 years already. You have an average to winning varsity record. You make it into elimination rounds on some weekends but are not consistent about it. If you are from Texas, you may have come close to qualifying for TFA State, such as getting 5-9 of the needed 10 points. If you are a UIL debater, you may have advanced to UIL Regionals. You are right on the cusp of qualifying for state and national championships.

D: Varsity, Level 2 -- You've competed in debate 2-3 years already. You have an average to losing varsity record. You make it into elimination rounds on occasional weekends but are not consistent about it. If you are from Texas, you may have earned some TFA points, such as 2-4 of the needed 10 to qualify for TFA State. You have a lot of experience attending tournaments but are not getting the results to match the efforts you are making.

E: Intermediate -- You've competed steady for at least a year. If you've competed for more than a year, you've attended tournaments infrequently. Most of your prior debate experience was as a novice. You have been a successful novice debater, regularly reaching elimination at this level, and are read to make the transition into competing varsity next year. You might have a few varsity competitions under your belt, but you most likely struggled when debating higher level kids. For the most part, you feel comfortable with the foundational skills.

F: Beginning -- You are a beginner with little to no experience in LD prior to coming to camp. If you have competed before, it has been at only a few competitions (maybe 1-3) at the novice level, and you have struggled in terms of your win-loss record. You feel you still could benefit from learning the foundational skills to build upon them. Even if you have debated some before, if you feel like you still need

work on the foundational skills (such as understanding case construction, the function of the criterion, learning to flow, etc.), then you should place yourself in this category.

I am having a very hard time deciding between Intermediate and Varsity Level 2. I wouldnt say Varsity Level 2 because I have only competed for one year but you should take a look at my overall record to see if that is an average to losing varsity record (18-22). Everything else seems true because I got 5 to 6 state points this year. But then intermediate because I have competed for a year steadily as it says and I agree that I do have trouble debating higher level kids, but Im not sure if 10 is a few varsity competitions. I think my best bet is Varsity Level 2 other than the fact that Ive only debated for one year and that struggling while debating higher level kids is not in that level.

So I think Varsity Level 2 but I would like to discuss it with you before you make the final decision. Please take a look at what I wanted to learn this year and improve on above (Kritics, counterplans, shells, theory, improving rebuttals and case writing, and cutting card, brushing up on fundamentals, other technicals, etc.) and please let me know what you think before you make a final decision. You may also look me up on NFL if you want a better idea but I really want to be put in the correct level that portrays my skill level. Thanks!

13. Please look over our staff list on our website (http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/debate/UTNIF//staff-ld.html). Are there any staff members with whom you specifically would like to request to work? Are there any staff members with whom you know you do not want to work? This information will be kept confidential. Only Ms. Thomas will see it. The staff list at the above website is mostly complete (though some of the bios aren't fully updated). We've recently added one more staff member, Tyler Levy, who is the assistant LD coach at Colleyville-Heritage High School in the DFW area. He also judges frequently in his region and competed in both LD and policy debate in high school. He will be attending law school in the fall. I would love to work with Stacy Thomas, Andrew Cockroft, Josh Aguilar, Dan Jennis, Eric Melin, and James Monaco. No, none specific that I would not want to wok with.

14. Do you have any other concerns or information you would like to share? If you are a repeater to UTNIF, are there any changes you hope to see at the camp? I am a vegetarian, so I hope there are options. Other than that, I really hope to get the best out of this experience.

15. Should I continue to use this email for contacting you, or would you prefer a different email address be used on the UTNIF mailing list? Yes, you may use this email.