A student's arms windmilled as he raced through an argument about AI data centers straining the electrical grid. When he finished, 17-year-old Daphne Spunt had some pointers: slow down, look up from the computer, make eye contact.

Inside a conference room at Temple Beth Zion, Spunt runs the Brookline Summer Debate Club, a program she founded this year that has drawn about 50 students and raised roughly $10,000 for Brookline High School's speech and debate team, according to Spunt.

Spunt, a rising BHS senior and two-year debate team captain, said the idea grew from her own experience in middle school.

"I wanted to do something more and start a camp for kids that were in my position in middle school, where I felt like I didn't have the confidence to voice my opinion because I was scared of getting judged by everyone else that disagreed," she said.

She teamed up with Vasily Morozov, 17, a rising senior at Lexington High School who had run a similar program in his town. The two lead sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 to 7 p.m., with participants ranging from middle schoolers to high school juniors, drawn from Brookline and communities as far as Acton.

The program is independently run and not affiliated with the BHS debate team, according to the club's website. Registration for the August session costs a $175 donation, with 24 of 30 spots filled as of Friday, Aug. 21.

Each session opens with "four corners," an exercise where students stake out positions on questions and explain their reasoning. They then split by age group to spend weeks researching and debating a single topic, such as nuclear energy or AI data centers, learning to build arguments and respond to opponents.

Neev Kapur, 11, of Brookline, said his motivation was simple: "I just like to argue about everything."

Amelie Theunissen, 15, of Brookline, said the program has changed how she speaks in class. She and her debate partner often start researching a topic convinced one side is stronger, only to find themselves persuaded by evidence on the other side.

Morozov said he has watched students transform over the summer. Kids who wouldn't speak in July were formulating and delivering arguments by session's end, he said, and students who started out scattered learned to give focused, simple speeches.

The $10,000 raised will help cover tournament entry fees and travel costs for BHS debaters, and support the team in hosting its own tournament, Spunt said. The BHS speech and debate team is student-led, with physics teacher Graciela Mohamedi serving as faculty adviser, The Cypress reported in June.

Spunt brings serious credentials to the instruction: she won the 2025 Massachusetts Public Forum state championship and competed in Lincoln-Douglas at NCFL Grand Nationals in Washington, D.C., in May 2026. Morozov is ranked first among Lincoln-Douglas debaters in Massachusetts and has qualified for nationals three times. Guest instructor Aryan Sethi, the 2026 MA Public Forum state champion, also teaches sessions.

The August session's final class is Wednesday, Aug. 26. No fall programming has been announced.