Aug 03, 2023 At 01:14 PM EDT
On a hot day in July, Judy Harris and Norm Ornstein stood on a stage in front of dozens of elementary to high school students, holding back tears.
After a day of instruction at the Matthew Harris Ornstein Washington Summer Debate Institute in Washington, D.C., Harris and Ornstein shared with the students the origins of the camp, the benefits of debate and the story of their late son.
"To the new debaters, keep this up," Ornstein said at the camp's opening ceremony. "[Debate] is not just about competition, it's about life skills and the relationships that you develop. It touches us to have you participating in this process."
While the couple is now retired, they both had long careers in law, government and academia.
Harris worked as a lawyer at a small firm that eventually merged with much larger firms.
"In those days, it was very hard for a woman to get a job in law," Harris told Newsweek in an interview. "I had actually won the trial competition at Yale Law School and couldn't get a single offer to be a litigator anywhere in the country. Those were very different days. It's still not perfect, but man, is it different."
She went on to become a managing partner before moving into government work at the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission in the Clinton administration.
Ornstein was an academic. He taught political science for 15 years at institutions such as The Catholic University of America and Johns Hopkins University. He then went on to join the American Enterprise Institute think tank.
But that all changed once their son, Matthew, tragically passed away at the age of 34 in 2015. In light of their son's death, the grieving parents established the Matthew Harris Ornstein Memorial Foundation and dedicated their lives to honoring his memory and helping others.
Matthew was a champion debater in high school who went on to graduate from Princeton University and become a writer in Hollywood. After his passing, his friends and family decided to help the debate community.
"We started with debate [after Matthew's death] because we knew that he would be all in—he would love it," Harris told Newsweek. "He would be here, you know, on staff and he would be mentoring, he loved that part of [debate]."
In addition to the debate camp, which runs two weeks for most participants but three weeks for varsity debaters, the foundation has also worked on a documentary about decriminalizing mental health treatment called Definition of Insanity, which premiered at the Miami Film Festival in March 2020.
At the time when the camp began in 2015, the Washington Urban Debate League (WUDL) was just getting off the ground, and there weren't many debate programs in the city's public school system.
"That seemed like an enormous hole because these kids lived in a world of public policy, and there were certainly a lot of kids without access to a lot of services," Harris said, "right in the shadow of the Capitol."
The camp began with about 30 students, a mix of novice, JV and varsity, and ran for five days. It was Harris and Ornstein's goal to serve the students with fewer resources who needed it the most.
"As you see these kids go through the program, you've got these kids who are incredibly smart, incredibly motivated," Ornstein said. "And if you just give them the tools, they're going to be successful in life."
The camp, therefore, is completely free of cost for students—who come from public schools, many of which are Title I schools. While kids didn't have to pay money to attend, Harris said there was one important stipulation early on.
"The price you have to pay is you'll go back to your school, and you'll start a debate team," Harris said.
And many students took them up on that, returning to their schools and building out debate programs. The camp turned out to be the spark that helped grow WUDL into a successful league serving over 70 D.C.-area schools.
David Trigaux, the WUDL director of programming and development, said camp kicks off the new debate season each year by introducing the new topic, recruiting kids to start new teams and building excitement.
As the camp has grown, it has welcomed nearly 200 students each summer from different backgrounds with different life and debate experiences.
"It's good to be diverse," Trigaux said. "It's a mix of income. It's a very nice mix of genders, a mix of the part of the city where you're from to really represent the community."
He added that this makeup allows kids to learn from each other and step out of their own bubbles to "have the conversations that they wouldn't normally have."
At its core, the camp focuses on the students. And so do Harris and Ornstein. In the nine years since the camp began, what Harris and Ornstein value the most is the connection with the kids and their growth over the two weeks. Harris and Ornstein keep in touch with individuals who attended the camp as students, as well as those who return as coaches.
"I think we're really lucky to have them helping out so much at camp," Gaby Sousa, a rising freshman, told Newsweek. "I don't know if we'd be able to do this every year if it wasn't for their support. And I think it's especially important at the opening ceremony for them to tell their story. It's really impactful to see how other people have been affected by Matthew and how they really want to [debate] in his honor."
Ornstein said there is "nothing more gratifying" than seeing kids return to camp who want to give back to the league or who send birthday cards for Matthew every summer.
"These kids are so loyal, and when we see them succeed, it's just really thrilling," Harris said.
When Liv Birnstad, last year's winner of the Matthew Harris Ornstein Outstanding Debater Award and the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues Debater of the Year in 2023, found out she was accepted to Harvard, she called Harris and Ornstein right away.
"She was sobbing and she said, 'I hope Matthew is proud of me,' and I said, 'He's proud of you, I'm sure,'" Harris said.
Harris and Ornstein just celebrated their 75th birthdays and are working on preparations for the 10th annual Matthew Harris Ornstein Washington Summer Debate Institute next year.
"Norm always says, 'Don't worry about old age, it doesn't last long,'" Harris said. "So we have to be thinking about what we can do to perpetuate what we've created here when we're not able to [continue the work ourselves]. So we have to think about that, if there is a way this could go on after we're no longer able to be here every day."
Harris admits that running a nonprofit is difficult, as "you have to continue to grow or you disappear."
For Ornstein, continuing to bolster accessibility is key, especially in light of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn affirmative action, putting the college admissions of minority and low-income students at risk.
"These rich kids are able to supplement their test scores with all the extracurricular activities they do," he said. "And many of these poor kids are not able to do that, they don't have the resources and their schools don't have the programs. So I think [debate] becomes 100 times more important."
Over the years, Harris and Ornstein have gotten immense joy from watching young novices "blossom" and "find their own voices" at debate camp. The couple's ultimate goal would be to see one of their students become the next president or the next Oprah.
These debaters are not only well prepared for college, but they are prepared to become future leaders.
"I do believe that debate is creating a hope for the future," Harris said. "The civility with which these kids develop and how grateful they are and how respectful they are, I think it's a model for an aching country."
