On March 1st, 2024, Kudos students, including those from the middle school Advanced Class and the Speech tournament team, participated in the SCJFL Spring Speech Tournament at Jefferson Middle School. More than two hundred students from twelve schools were on site, making it one of the biggest SCJFL tournaments. Many Kudos students successfully reached the final rounds, bringing home numerous trophies. Events and final placements are listed as follows.

Congratulations to all the Kudos students and the coaches — great job!

Stanford University’s 38th Annual Invitational Speech & Debate Tournament took place on Feb 10-11, 2024, Stanford University Tournament is one of the largest tournaments on the west coast attracting more than 300 schools. In the festive days of the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Dragon, the Kudos tournament team proudly brought home top honors and trophies, showcasing their success and skill in this highly competitive event.

The Winter Southern California Elementary Forensics Tournament was held at Roosevelt Elementary School on February 10th, 2024, the first day of the Lunar Year of the Dragon! Kudos competitors won Championship in Spar Debate, and numerous top places in Impromptu Speech:

The Kudos Middle School Debate Teams competed at their first online tournament of the year and walked away with some excellent results. Kudos had students in the top two of Student Congress, Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum. We are very pleased with the positive accolades the students brought home this tournament. Onto the awards!

Starting in Congress, Kudos 6 of the top 7 students in congressional debate, including 8 of the 13 finalists. We also had 10 of the top 15 as well as 14 of the top 20. Shoutouts to first year Carrie Rao and third year Annie Zhao for being the winner of their preliminary chambers. This is the 2nd tournament in a row that Carrie has won her preliminary chamber. Carrie and Sanju have been top two in their prelim and top four overall after prelims at all three tournaments this year. Annie and fellow returner John Dong accomplished the same feat at all three tournaments placing top five in their prelim and top nine overall. Ella Fan has also done this by being top four in her prelims and top eight overall heading into outrounds at all three tournaments. These five as well as Betty Chen, Zoey Luc, and Hayley Fung have broken at every tournament they’ve attendended. Kayli Tang also earned props for being top six in her chamber and top 12 overall after all three tournament prelims. 1st years Ashley Ma and Ardent Lin deserve praise for their first breaks ever! In particular, Ashley went from last place at her previous tournament to finaling at this competition. Overall, Carrie, Ella, Sanju, Annie and John, were not only five of the top six, but they earned 10 of the 12 available 1st places ranks that were given by judges throughout prelims and elims combined.

On the Lincoln Douglas side, returners Yuna Wu, Harry Chen, and William Lin all won top speaker awards as they were all in the top seven. Harry is on a roll as he has earned a speaker award at each tournament this year. First year Rebecca Ho also deserves congratulations for being top speaker in the tournament. Coach Pepper was not surprised as Rebecca was the first person done with her case, and the first person to have prepared cutting all of her cards. The Lincoln Douglas girls cleaned house this tournament with Yuna, Rebecca, and Grace Yang making up half of the breaks in LD. They were also three of the top four with Rebecca and Yuna taking 1st and 2nd.

Finally in Public Forum , congratulations to Jayden Huang and Derek Hu for taking 2nd place. They lost in finals to Katherine Duan who was tournament champion with her school partner. Katherine, Anson Cheang and Claire Xuan all deserve credit for earning speaker awards. Katherine. This is Katherine’s 2nd tournament championship and she’s now done so in Lincoln Douglas AND Public Forum

Go Kudos!

On December 9th, 2023, Kudos Coaches Alex and Thomas led the Kudos Elementary School Team to their inaugural in-person Speech and Debate Tournament of the 2023-24 academic year at Roosevelt Elementary. We are thrilled to report that this event, with 12 schools totaling 120 competitors participating, marked a wonderful first outing for our novice competitors, showcasing both their growth and dedication.

In the Impromptu Speech category, our students displayed commendable performances. Their achievements in Impromptu Speech reflect not only their individual talents but also the effective guidance provided by our dedicated coaches.

Their achievements in Impromptu Speech reflect not only their individual talents but also the effective guidance provided by our dedicated coaches. Additionally, in the SPAR Speech category, our students demonstrated resilience and skill, achieving notable standings:

Congratulations to all participants for their hard work and achievements. These results highlight the depth of talent within the Kudos Elementary School Team and the dedication of both students and coaches. Each participant has contributed to our collective pride, and we look forward to building on this success in future tournaments.

Damien Debate Tournament 2023

The Kudos Middle School Debate Teams traveled to Damien High School this past weekend and had great success. They concluded the 2023 calendar year on a high note and have returned with numerous trophies. We sent students in Congress, Lincoln Douglas, and Public Forum, and Kudos got great experience going up against fresh competition.

Starting in Congress, Kudos was incredibly dominant. Kudos had 13 of the top 16 students in congressional debate, including 10 of the 12 finalists. Shoutouts to first year Carrie Rao and third year Sanju Chanumalla for being the winner of the preliminary chambers with first years Ella Fan and Jacquelyn Meng plus second years John Dong and Hayley Fung for rounding out the top six seeds in prelims. Those six, plus first years Kayli Tang and Justin Huo earned 10 of the 12 available first place ranks in the prelims. Kayli and Justin were also the top Presiding Officers from their prelim chambers and Justin was the top P.O. in finals. Credits are due to Jacquelyn and fellow first year Jenay Han, for making their first ever final. Jenay especially deserves praise for her tremendous growth, after getting all 9’s last tournament, to then not earning a single nine in prelims at this competition. Third year Annie Zhao, as well as John, Hayley, Sanju, Carrie, and Justin have all made the final round at both tournaments this year. Sanju deserves praise for winning the tournament! She, Annie and Carrie have all placed top six at both tournaments this year.

On the Lincoln Douglas side, returners Yuna Wu, Harry Chen, Katherine Duan, and William Lin all won top 10 speaker awards as they were all in the top six. Yuna deserves credit for her effort after some bad luck, where she had to go against two of the students that went undefeated in prelims. Special praise to William for tying for the top speaker. Harry and Yuna have received speaker awards at both tournaments this year. Speaker points are calculated after dropping the debaters’ best and worst result. But based on the raw total of speaker points, Katherine was the top speaker overall! Creds to Rebecca Ho for being top half in raw points. Despite there being nearly 30 entries, the tournament only broke the top two competitors to finals. Katherine deserves a round of applause for being the top seed and then winning the whole tournament. This was especially impressive considering she didn’t drop a ballot the entire tournament, with every judge who saw her giving her a win in her rounds.

Finally in Public Forum , congratulations to Claire Yuan and Isabella Meng for having a winning record and only losing to the tournament co-champions. Matthew Li and Kaitlyn Wu also deserve credit for earning speaker awards. Snaps for Jayden Huang, Derek Hu and Frances Xiao for being in the top half of speaker points. Derek and Jayden were also 4th and 5th respectively in raw speaker points.

YAY Kudos!

Team Photo

Kudos Speech and Debate Team Shines Bright at Jefferson Middle School Tournament!

Under the guidance of Coach Allison and Coach Thomas, the Kudos Middle School Team recently participated in the first in-person Speech and Debate Tournament of the 2023-24 year, hosted at Jefferson Middle School in San Gabriel on November 2nd, 2023. For many of our students, it was their first time competing, but the initial nerves and jitters didn’t hold back the team as multiple students broke into finals and had an incredibly strong showing with a total participants of 122 and 12 schools registered.

Alyssa Guo made her very first competition appearance and not only gave outstanding performances in SPAR and Impromptu speaking but also managed to place 4th and 6th overall in each respective event. Alyssa might have started the day nervous, but by the end of the day, her talent and dedication were undeniable!

Kaylee Lu also had an incredibly impressive tournament outing, managing to place 8th in the SPAR standings and taking home the 2nd place trophy in Impromptu Speaking. This wasn’t Kaylee’s first tournament outing, but Coach Tom and Allison were incredibly proud to see her place higher than she ever has before.

First-time competitors Harry Zhou and Bailey Tang also placed 11th and 7th in the SPAR competition, respectively, and Kudos’ own Kenneth Yue thrilled judges in his storytelling event, taking three consecutive 1st place rankings in his preliminary rounds before snagging 5th place in the final round!

Coach Tom also wanted to highlight the incredible progress of student Olivia Chen. This was her first tournament appearance, and her level of dedication to prepare for the tournament, as well as her ability to overcome her initial nerves, was incredibly inspiring!

We couldn’t be more proud of how hard our students worked to prepare for this tournament. Here are the listed placements below:

Impromptu:
Kaylee Lu – 2nd Place
Alyssa Guo – 6th Place

Spar:
Alyssa Guo – 4th Place
Harry Zhou – 7th Place
Kaylee Lu – 8th Place
Bailey Tang – 11th Place

Storytelling:
Kenneth Yue – 5th Place

Kudos’ High School Team visited Cal State Long Beach to compete at the 30th annual Jack Howe Memorial. For some students, this was their first tournament of the year, for some it was the first high school tournament ever. But with their adrenaline rushing and their attitudes brimming with positivity, Kudos turned out with a strong performance. Kudos sent seven students to the tournament, with six of them in congress.

Although he is on the Kudos high school congress team, freshman Ethan Li competed in Public Forum for the first time in his life. His school only had a certain amount of spots they could send in congress. Thus he entered in Public Forum so his long-time Kudos, and now high school teammate, Edwin Jiao, could enter congress. However, this was not a fruitless endeavor, as Ethan ended up with an being in the top 20% for speaker points and was awarded as the 6th best speaker in the category. He and his novice partner were one win away from a winning record, in what was a solid showing for Ethan in his first time ever doing the event.

On the congress side, the high school team continued to roll after their hot start to the season. Edwin got ranked on multiple ballots in his first ever high school competition. This included getting ranked in the top half by the parliamentarian, who ranks the competitors based on all three rounds combined rather than their performance in just one round. In order to advance to the elimination rounds, the student had to be in the top ⅓, as five students from each of the five, fifteen person chambers broke into the outrounds. Anne Liu was 7th in their chamber after earning multiple top five ranks Evelyn Lam was next out from breaking, as she was 6th in her chamber despite having a better cume than multiple people who broke from other chambers. Just to illuminate how much of a fluke it was that Evelyn didn’t break: not only was she ranked #1 by her parliamentarian. She was the only person in the tournament ranked 1st, 2nd, OR 3rd by their parliamentarian who didn’t break. So we know that Evelyn will dust herself off and come out swinging in her next tournament.

Kudos did have three students in outrounds, as Freshman Audrey Huang, plus Juniors Claire Wen, and Zach Chang broke in back to back tournaments Claire had the 8th best prelims rank, and was the only student in the top ten that was from Southern California. Audrey was next out from making finals, and was the highest placing freshman in the tournament. Zach and Claire finaled for the 2nd time in a row, both earning their second TOC bids. That means that Zach and Claire are already FULLY Qualified for the Tournament of Champions, a feat accomplished by just ten students across the country before October 1st. As of today, Kudos is one of only two programs in the country to have multiple students fully qualified to the TOC in Congress. GO KUDOS GO!!!

However the fun doesn’t end there, as Mr. Feldman was able to swing by CSULB on Saturday morning to lead warmups for the high school students before he went down to teach the Middle School Congress Irvine class. For some students, this was their first time ever meeting Mr. Feldman in person, despite having worked with Coach Evan for years. For all of the students that weren’t freshman, this was the first time they got to see Mr. Feldman since they were middle schoolers. In particular, 11th grader Zach Chang hadn’t seen Mr. Feldman since Stanford 2020 right before the pandemic, when he was in just the 7th grade. This was a beautiful reunion for Mr. Feldman and the high school students!

Mr. Feldman in person with the high school students for the first time since 2020

The third year of Kudos High School Congress kicked off with a bang as our students competed at three different tournaments throughout the month of September. The grind towards the mountain top of success starts by working hard right from the start, and these students showed that mentality by kicking off competition on September 9th, before some other debate programs even held their first official practice.

It started with the Season Opener, hosted by the University of Kentucky. Kudos sent five students and all five were in the top 25 for cumulative ranks out of over 80 entries. Three students from each of the eight chambers broke into semifinals, and we had four of our students advance into semis. Junior Claire Wen and Freshman Audrey Huang not only were the top students in their prelim chamber, but the top two students overall coming out of prelims. Junior Zach Chang and Sophomore Evelyn Lam were the top #2 seeds in the tournaments, having the sixth and eight best cumes respectively. Sophomore Serena Guo actually had the 25th best cume and would have broken if not for being put into a hyper-competitive preliminary chamber. Our upperclassmen, Zach and Claire both advanced from the semi-final to the final and each picked up their first bid to the Tournament of Champions.

Fiona Zhao was the only student from the entire state of California to make the trek out to the East Coast and compete at Yale, which is the 2nd most prestigious tournament in the country for congress, right behind Harvard. She was ranked in the top eight by six of her seven judges, including a 1st place rank from the parliamentarian. Not only is the parli’s ballot the most important because they are usually the most experienced judge, and see the competitors in all prelims rather than in just one round. But Fiona got the 1 from former Congress National Champion, Parker De Deker! Fiona also picked up her first TOC bid this year.

Great Job Kudos!

Mr. Feldman doing the Kudos Hype Call before prelims for the Season Opener

Mr Feldman leads warmups before the semifinal and final rounds for the UK Season Opener[/caption]

SCJFL Debate finally returned to in-person after a whopping three years and eight months, due to the pandemic-related in-person hiatus. Not only was this the first tournament ever for some students, even for many returning students, this was their first in person tournament of their careers. Kudos kids did not let this faze them, and took the campus of East Los Angeles College by storm. Across Congress, Lincoln Douglas, and Public Forum, Kudos made their presence known and walked away victorious.

Starting in congress, Kudos absolutely dominated. Kudos had all 11 congressional debate finalists, and 14 of the top 15 students. Shout outs to 3rd year students Zoey Luc, Sanju Chanumalla and Annie Zhao for all placing top six overall in their final SCJFL opener ever. Those three, in combination with second years Hayley Fung + John Dong, in addition to first year Carrie Rao, took all 12 of the possible first place ranks that were offered between the three prelims and the final round. It was thus no shock that Zoey (five) and Hayley (three) took 1st and 2nd overall after they alone earned 75 % of the available 1st place ranks. Carrie and fellow first-years Jessica Wang, Ella Fan, and Justin Huo, closed out the final round in addition to Betty Chen, who rejoins congress after a successful year competing on the speech team and Samantha Zheng in her first congress tournament after competing in PF last year.

On the Lincoln Douglas side, Mazel Tov goes to 8th grader Yuna Wu who made the semifinal round. Shoutouts also go to fellow 8th grader Harry Chen for taking wins against two students from other programs, which knocked them out of the top four seeds and allowed Yuna to break ahead of them. These two LD returners also were on the PF team as 6th graders, so Kudos was very happy to see their teamwork panning out. Harry himself only lost to Yuna, and the eventual champion, but won a speaker’s award for his stellar performance. Congrats go to Yuna as well as first year’s Rebecca Ho and Grace Yang for all winning speaker awards!

Finally in Public Forum, congratulations to Frances Xiao and Matthew Li who took 3rd overall, and head to head only lost to the top two teams. They were also the third seed heading out of prelims, solidifying their placement as a top three team in the tournament. Praise is due for Claire Xuan as well as Frances, and fellow first years, Jayden Huang, and Derek Hu, for all winning speaker awards.

Overall, Kudos won sweepstakes at this tournament with 38 points (2.5 as many as any other school) and won only four less sweepstakes points than all of the other programs COMBINED. Way to go Kudos!

Kudos LD, PF, & Congress with Coach Feldman and Pepper

Yuna Wu Trophy Semifinalist

Rebecca Ho LD Speaker Award

Frances Xiao and Matthew Li PF 3rd Place

All 11 Congress Finalists were from Kudos

Kudos students after winning 20 awards!

Mr Feldman leads warmups at a league tournament in person, for the first time in nearly 45 months.