Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Develop and deliver a persuasive speech in this 3-week public-speaking program for high school students on UT Austin’s campus.
Rated 4.6 out of 5 for course experience by students surveyed across the broader program in 2026.
Instructor:
Course Description
What makes a speaker difficult to ignore? Students begin by identifying what they care about and delivering a short introduction. Work on posture, eye contact, vocal tone, pacing, and purposeful movement shows how an audience reads delivery before evaluating the argument itself.
The course then builds persuasive content. Personal narratives develop specificity and emotional connection. Students frame problems, establish stakes, and combine claims, warrants, evidence, and impact. Mini-debates and challenge speeches introduce ethos, pathos, and logos, while crossfire practice requires students to answer questions without losing composure or credibility.
Audience-adaptation exercises ask students to present the same idea differently to parents, teachers, voters, athletes, gamers, or younger students. Impromptu prompts develop recovery skills under pressure. Each student then writes and rehearses a four-to-six-minute persuasive speech with a hook, problem, argument, solution, call to action, and memorable closing. Peer feedback and dress rehearsals lead to a final showcase.
This three-week course takes place at UT Austin. The course is available to residential and commuter students. Beyond class, students connect focused academic work with campus life, growing independence, and clearer direction about what students may want to study or pursue next. The program is developed by the University of Texas at Austin and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery.
What Will You Do?
• Deliver short speeches focused on presence, tone, pacing, and movement
• Build personal narratives with vivid detail and a clear takeaway
• Support persuasive claims with warrants, evidence, and impact
• Practice ethos, pathos, logos, mini-debates, and crossfire responses
• Adapt one message for audiences with different priorities
• Write, rehearse, and perform a four-to-six-minute persuasive speech
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Structure a persuasive argument with a claim, evidence, reasoning, and call to action
• Adapt stories, language, and delivery for different audiences and situations
• Deliver and defend a polished persuasive speech with purposeful vocal and physical choices
Students will leave with a completed persuasive speech, repeated performance practice, and clearer direction for study or careers involving communication, advocacy, leadership, or media.
Students receive a University of Texas branded certificate of completion at the end of the program.
Why Persuasive Speaking Skills Matter
Persuasive speaking requires more than confidence. A speaker must define a claim, support it with credible evidence, anticipate objections, and shape the message for a particular audience. Storytelling and emotional appeal can make an argument memorable, but they work best when the reasoning remains clear.
Repeated short speeches help students notice how posture, pacing, tone, and word choice affect credibility. Peer critique teaches them to give useful feedback and revise deliberately. These skills strengthen classroom presentations, interviews, leadership, advocacy, and collaborative discussion. They also help students communicate under pressure without confusing volume or certainty with a well-supported case.
Who Should Attend?
This course is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and want to become more deliberate and effective speakers. It fits interests in debate, storytelling, advocacy, leadership, media, business, law, politics, or any setting where ideas must be presented clearly.
Students do not need to arrive as confident performers. They should be willing to speak frequently, experiment with delivery, discuss meaningful issues, give and receive peer feedback, respond to unexpected questions, and revise a speech several times. Applicants must also complete the program application.
Why UT Austin?
Studying on UT Austin’s Forty Acres campus gives high-school students a substantive introduction to academic life in Austin, Texas. Courses draw from popular undergraduate fields and Austin specialties. Full-day academies offer concentrated study, while classes across the program take place in campus classrooms and laboratories and may include guest speakers and fieldwork around Austin.
The experience extends beyond class for both residential and commuting students. Residential students live in Jester Hall, eat at J2, a popular campus dining hall, and take part in activities that may range from a star party at PMA to time at Gregory Gym, Zilker Park, South Congress, or an Austin FC match. Students gain independence, meet peers, and leave with a clearer view of college life, possible directions for future study, and what it can feel like to be a Longhorn.
Summer Discovery Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive