To drive economic mobility through the development of diverse leaders, placing students from underserved communities on a pathway to prestigious colleges and impactful careers.
To help close the opportunity and achievement gaps for students from underserved communities by providing academic and professional development programming that makes them ultra-competitive.
Veritas envisions a cutting-edge multicultural institution that cultivates exceptionally skilled and empathetic leaders trained to solve the most pressing issues in society. This vision involves crafting a curriculum and environment that mirrors the spectrum of diverse people, cultures, and ideas that exist in our world.
Veritas (Veritas School of Social Sciences, Inc.) is a pre-collegiate Saturday school for multicultural students in Atlanta. Veritas offers a suite of higher-level academic and professional development programs designed to make students ultra-competitive in the admissions process for elite colleges & universities and place them on a pathway to impactful careers.
Students accepted into Veritas first complete a full year of academic training in Atlanta through the nationally-acclaimed Veritas Debate Institute (VDI) where they learn a variety of college-level survey courses such as philosophy, political science, sociology, economics, and more. The school year culminates with an international summer residential debate program at Harvard University, where Veritas scholars study for two weeks alongside hundreds of gifted youth from around the world. The summer residency concludes with an academic debate competition on campus. Veritas has won the international academic debate competition for six consecutive years (every year since the program's inception in 2017).
Following the one-year VDI academic program, Veritas scholars become alumni who receive access to programming (throughout high school & college) that is designed to first make them competitive in the college admissions process and then the workforce. Veritas provides monthly training and experiences that equip our alumni with exceptional professional skills and robust resumes. The monthly programming is hybrid, taking place both in person and virtually. The programs include: Veritas Global Travel Program, Corporate Immersion Program, and Career Readiness Program, all designed to build robust resumes through education and experiences that will make them competitive in college admissions and beyond.
Veritas offers (7) programs that provide rigorous academic and professional skills training to strategically build robust, competitive resumes that position students for admission into the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world.
8th - 12th-grade students accepted into Veritas begin with our flagship program, Veritas Debate Institute, which includes 11 months of weekly Saturday school where students are taught philosophy, political science, sociology, humanities, rhetoric, debate, and literary criticism among other college-level disciplines. Courses are taught by Veritas alumni alongside nationally acclaimed educator Brandon P. Fleming who is a former Harvard debate coach, award-winning author, renowned speaker, and President & CEO of Veritas.
Veritas Debate Institute concludes with the Harvard Debate Council’s international summer residential debate program at Harvard University. Alongside hundreds of gifted youth worldwide, Veritas scholars reside and study on campus for two weeks. Students are taught by award-winning faculty from elite institutions like Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, etc. The Harvard residential program culminates in a debate competition that Veritas scholars have won for six consecutive years.
Upon successful completion of Veritas Debate Institute, the focus shifts from academic to professional skills training. Scholars are given access to monthly alumni programming that is designed to advance their professional skills, build robust resumes, and prepare them for prestigious colleges and careers.
The Veritas Global Travel Program offers an immersive and educational travel experience for students to explore some of the most captivating destinations around the world. Through a carefully curated itinerary, participants will embark on a transformative journey of cultural exploration, historical discovery, and personal growth. This program is designed to provide a rich and diverse experience, taking students to places like Israel, South Africa, Rome, Egypt, and many more.
During the weekly Saturday school sessions, Veritas teaches a variety of social science-based survey courses including:
Social Sciences are about the IDEAS that shape the world in government, law, science, technology, economics, and every facet of society. Therefore, social sciences are the academic disciplines that give students the most well-rounded, comprehensive understanding of the ways social and commercial institutions are built, sustained, and improved. Veritas teaches the social sciences as a means to develop the next generation of innovative thinkers and leaders who will create ideas that will make the world a better place for everyone.
Debate is about problem-solving. Effective leaders across every profession and industry must be able to 1.) identify problems, 2.) gather and analyze data, 3.) develop solutions, and 4.) communicate them persuasively. These are the precise academic, professional, and interpersonal skills that students learn to master through academic debate.
To explore the social sciences, we employ the Debate Learning Method (DLM), the unique award-winning teaching model designed at Veritas that has been proven to develop students into superior critical thinkers, problem solvers, and communicators. DLM is a problem-solving framework fit for every academic discipline. Veritas has trained over 100,000 educators nationwide on how to implement DLM in all core content areas to optimize student engagement and accelerate student performance.
To learn more about DLM, visit Veritas Teachers Institute.
Veritas is a multicultural program for rising 8th – 11th-grade students in Metro Atlanta seeking access to higher-level academic training that will challenge them beyond the rigors of a traditional school setting. The ideal candidate is motivated to achieve the highest levels of academic excellence in pursuit of prestigious colleges and universities.
Applications for the next Veritas cohort open each year on February 1st.
If you are a student who would like to become a Veritas scholar, apply at www.veritasgeorgia.com/apply
Study and compete with hundreds of gifted youth worldwide at Harvard's summer residential program, where Veritas is a seven-time consecutive champion.
Learn higher-level courses (philosophy, political science, sociology, law, economics, public speaking, debate, literary criticism, etc.) in an exhilarating environment that combines passion and intellect.
We turn the world into our classroom, traveling to countries like Italy, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Israel, South Africa, and more oto build empathetic, global-minded leaders through cultural immersion.
Veritas partners with major corporations to provide our scholars corporate immersion experiences. Veritas scholars spend time learning from corporate executives while using skills learned in the Veritas classroom to develop and pitch solutions to real-world corporate issues.
Veritas helps position students for acceptance into the top colleges & universities in the world.
We teach equity
We do not learn for the sake of knowing. We learn for the sake of doing. We learn how to use our gifts to repair the world.
Too often, youth from underserved communities are not given access to high-quality educational opportunities that will make them competitive for college admissions and the workforce. This opportunity gap creates an achievement gap that swells into the racial wealth gap that we see in America. We are closing that gap and creating generational wealth by positioning students to become high earners and contributors.
Class of 2018
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Over 200 Atlanta Students + Ivy League & Elite Education =
Collective Earning Potential of 10,000,000/yr. in 25 years…
Est. 2017 at Harvard University
Veritas was founded in 2017 by Brandon P. Fleming, an award-winning author, educator, and former Harvard debate coach, as a campus program called Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project. During his tenure at Harvard as assistant debate coach, Fleming identified the need for more representation of Black and brown students in Harvard’s summer residential debate program, understanding how such prestigious academic opportunities impact students’ chances to earn acceptance into elite colleges and universities. With Harvard’s support, Fleming founded the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project to create access for Black youth from Atlanta to study and compete in Harvard’s annual summer residential debate program.
The Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project (now Veritas Debate Institute) was designed as a weekly Saturday school to equip Atlanta youth with higher-level academic training to prepare them to compete on an international stage at Harvard’s summer residential debate program. Since 2017, all six cohorts of the Veritas Debate Institute’s students have won the Harvard Debate Council’s international academic debate competition for six consecutive years – outperforming hundreds of gifted youth from over 25 countries around the world. As a result, Veritas alumni have been accepted into top colleges and universities around the world.
Through his work, Veritas has shown the world what youth from underserved communities are capable of achieving when the playing field is leveled and they are given access to the quality of education they deserve. The program’s proven success led to a rapid increase in demand, creating a need for growth and scale. Fleming scaled the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project into the Veritas School of Social Sciences to expand the organization’s services to include more programming and allow more youth and educators to access the life-changing educational model.
Over the past decade, Brandon P. Fleming has become one of the most highly awarded and sought-after educators, entrepreneurs, authors, and speakers in the world. Fleming’s miraculous story of transformation, captured in his book Miseducated, has become such a national hit that it is currently being optioned for television and film, and it is in the process of becoming a major theater production.
An at-risk youth and college dropout turned award-winning educator, Fleming is a former debate coach at Harvard University and the founding president & CEO of the Veritas School of Social Sciences, a prestigious private school in Atlanta, GA.
In 2017, Fleming was recruited to become Harvard University’s assistant debate coach at the age of 26. Fleming soon made history at Harvard as the founder of the first pipeline program called the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, which was designed to increase Black and brown enrollment at Harvard’s residential debate program where hundreds of gifted young scholars from over 25 different countries study and compete in an international academic debate competition.
Over seven years, Fleming has raised millions of dollars to enroll more than 250 students of color into Harvard’s summer debate residency on full scholarship. But there was one challenge that Fleming faced: How would he take Black and brown youth from mostly under-resourced schools in Atlanta, who had never been exposed to the rigors of academic debate, and prepare them in just one year to compete against some of the most elite debaters from across the globe? Fleming created a transformative curriculum that is designed to level the playing field for underserved students. And it did. For seven consecutive years, since the program’s inception in 2017, every cohort trained by Fleming has won the international competition as seven-time consecutive champions. News of the achievement has gone viral and broke national headlines, being featured on CNN, Good Morning America, the Steve Harvey Show and many more.
Fleming’s school has gained the financial backing of Fortune 100 companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, UPS, Chick-fil-A, and many more. As a renowned speaker, Fleming has keynoted for international governmental organizations such as the United Nations. Fleming has spoken at the nation’s most prestigious colleges, universities, and K-12 conferences. Fleming has also keynoted conventions for corporate executives at the nation’s largest brands such as Walmart, Bank of America, Air BnB, McDonald’s, and many more. At the age of 29, Forbes Magazine named Fleming to the Forbes 30 under 30 list. In 2020, The Root Magazine named Fleming one of the top 100 most influential African Americans in the United States. And in May 2021, North Carolina Wesleyan College bestowed upon Fleming the honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
