This past year was a great success for graduates of Kudos’ Middle School Congress program. Every graduate from the middle school program competing in high school congress either earned a bid to the Tournament of Champions, or qualified to State Championships.

Freshman Julianna Cui qualified to her state tournament (Virginia High School League), and made the final at her National Catholic Forensic’s League, National Qualifier. Freshman Anne Liu and Tim Cai both qualified to the California High School Speech Association’s (CHSAA) State Championships out of Area 4’s Orange County Speech League with Tim attending as a presiding officer, and Anne as a senator. Anne was joined by Sophomore Fiona Zhou who qualified out of Area 3’s Southern California Debate League. She and freshman Evelyn Lam qualified to the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Championships out of the East Los Angeles NSDA District with Evelyn in the House and Fiona in the Senate. Both girls made outrounds at Nationals with Evelyn making Quarter Finals and Fiona making semifinals.

This is the 2nd year in a row that a Kudos freshman broke at NSDA, with Evelyn joining Fiona who also broke her first year in high school at NSDA. Fiona didn’t stop there, as she was invited to Harvard’s prestigious round robin which is an invite only tournament for the best in the nation. Further, after being second in the NATION for TOC bids, she semi’d at TOC for the second year in a row. Her and fellow sophomore Claire Wen qualified for the TOC again after doing so the year prior. Freshman Serena Guo also qualified for the 2nd straight year, but was not allowed to attend TOC last year since she was only an 8th grader. Evelyn was our final TOC qualifier, with Julianna + sophomores Zach Chang and Lindsey Jiang each earning a bid this year. This was particularly notable for Lindsey and Zach who both only competed second semester after taking a first semester hiatus.

Kudos students earned a total of 18 TOC bids, which was twice as many as the year before. Things are looking up for Kudos high school congress as they head into their third year!

Tim, Zach, Juliana, Serena, Lindsey, Evelyn, Anne 2022 23 Updates

Claire and Fiona updated 2022-23 results

Evelyn Lam and Claire Wen at TOC

Anne, Claire Evelyn at CSULB

4/15/2023 The Last SCJFL Speech Tournament

The last In-Person Speech Tournament was held at Jefferson Midle School in San Gabriel on Friday, April 15. Six Kudos students competed in Open Impromptu. After a solid five hours and three rounds, Betty Chen, Kaylee Lu, and Paxton Kim-Tang broke into Finals.

In the final placements, Kaylee Lu won Fourth Place, Paxton Kim-Tang won Third Place, and Betty Chen won Second Place.

Huge congrats and applause to all of them for their hard work work throughout the year. The Speech Team coach, Mrs. Kalmus, was extremely proud of their growth and willingness to aim high, not giving up, and, most importantly, appreciated parental support.

This April tournament also conluded this year’s training season and we look forward to seeing them back again in the Fall.

Here are some behind-the-scenes winner’s photos and bloopers!

Hello Kudos family!

On the 8th of April, 2023, the Southern California Junior Forensic League held its fourth debate tournament to wrap up the year, and Kudos emerged victorious, sweeping numerous awards in the process. Our tournament teams and coaches put in countless hours of hard work and dedication to achieve this remarkable feat. Their unwavering commitment to excellence has truly paid off, and we are incredibly proud of their outstanding performance at the tournament.

Karina Yue and Katherine Duan won the Championship of Public Forum Debate! Here’s the speaker award ranking and final placement:

Karina Yue Public Forum (w/Katherine Duan) 1st Place
Kathrine Duan Public Forum (w/Karina Yue) 1st Place
Eugene Dai Public Forum (w/Mathew Li) 7th Place
Mathew Li  Public Forum (w/Eugene Dai) 7th Place
Alexander Lee Public Forum (Solo Debater) 9th Plac
Eugene Dai Public Forum Speaker Award 2nd Place
Alexander Lee Public Forum Speaker Award 4th Place
Katherine Duan  Public Forum Speaker Award 8th Place
Kenneth Yue Public Forum Speaker Award 10th Place
Kaitlyn Wu Public Forum Speaker Award 11th Place
Karina Yue Public Forum Speaker Award 12th Place
Matthew Li Public Forum Speaker Award 13th Place
Honorable mention to Matthew Li and Alexander Lee, they were both 6 th grade, first time Finalist, huge advancement for them, keep up the good work!

Audrey Huang garnered the Championship of Congress debate! Here’s the speaker award ranking and final placement:
Audrey Huang Congress 1st Place
Sanju Chanumalla Congress 3rd Place
Zoey Luc Congress 5th Place
John Dong Congress 6th Place
Hayley Fung Congress 7th Place
Morgan Yuan Congress 8th Place
Annie Zhao Congress 11th Place
Winston Lee Congress 12th Place
Michelle Cheng Congress 13th Place

In Lincoln Douglas debate, Lacie Zhou, broke for the first time, was placed 6th and Michelle Zhang from Northern California got 3rd . Here’s the speaker award ranking and final placement:
Kaden Wong Lincoln Douglas Speaker Award 5th Place
Harry Chen  Lincoln Douglas Speaker Award 7th Place
Claire Chen Lincoln Douglas Speaker Award 9th Place
Michelle Zhang Lincoln Douglas Speaker Award 10th Place
Michelle Zhang  Lincoln Douglas  3rd Place
Lacie Zhou Lincoln Douglas 6th Place

Thank you again ~ to all the parents for your support !

Phil Historian Results 2023

Even though it was Kudos’ spring break, the congressional debate team spent extra time last week to compete at the Philhisorian Middle School and High School Championships. Six students went to an extra practice and spent time competing at this tournament hosted by Santa Clara University. This tournament was unique in that they divided middle school congress into two divisions: varsity, and novice. Our competitors came out victorious, with five of our six students advancing to the final round.

All of our students deserve praise for earning a 1st place ranking from at least one judge during the tournament. Special shoutouts to Joshua Qiu for his first 1st of the year. Additionally, all six students ranked top five in prelims on the ballot from their parliamentarian. This is particularly special, because parliamentarians give rankings on all three rounds combined, rather than just one individual round. Ethan Li, John Dong and Michelle Pan also should be applauded for getting a 1st place ranking from at least HALF of the ten judges who saw their debates. Michelle did particularly well, by almost picket fencing (where a student gets all 1st place ranks) in prelims (her only non-1st was a 2nd place ranking. Congratulations are due for John, Michelle Cheng, and Michelle Pan, who AVERAGED a rank of 2nd place amongst the ten judges that evaluated their performances (including finals). Both Michelles’, Ethan, John and Edwin Jiao also were ranked top five by every of the seven judges that saw them in the preliminary rounds. John and the Michelle’s continued this trend even throughout their final round.

Of the 60 ballots that our students received at this tournament, a whopping 90% (54) of those ballots ranked our students inside the top eight. Cheers to John and Michelle Cheng for breaking at a non-league tournament for the very first time. They both were top three in their division, with John being named tournament champion. Kudos was the only school in their division to have two students in the top eight, let alone the top three. In the varsity division, Kudos had the 2nd most finalists with Ethan taking 11th, Edwin taking 9th and Michelle Pan being named the runner up champion. Great Job Kudos!!

Philhistorian Results

Hello Kudos family!

Kudos found great success this weekend at the SCJFL Tournament 3 across three debate events.

In Congress Edwin Jiao placed 14th, Annie Zhao placed 13th, John Dong placed 10th, Michelle Pan placed 7th, Ethan Li placed 6th, Sanjana Chanumalla placed 5th, Audrey Huang placed 4th, and Haylee Fung placed 1st!

In Lincoln-Douglas speaker awards: Yuna Wu took 8th place, Arvin Xia took 6th place, William Lin took 5th place, Michelle Zhang took 4th place, Joyce Zhang took 3rd place, and Kaden Wong took first place!

For overall Lincoln-Douglas placements: Harry Chen took 6th place, Joyce Zhang took 5th place, Claire Chen took 3rd place, and Kaden Wong placed 1st!

In Public Forum speaker awards: Steven Wang placed 10th, Emma Chen placed 9th, Claire Xuan placed 8th, Howard Ying placed 7th, Melissa Yu placed 5th, and Evans Chen placed 1st!

For overall Public Forum placements: Kathleen Chen and Madeline Wong placed 7th and Eugene Dai and Steven Wang placed 4th!

Thank you to all students for your hard work and to all parents for your continued support!

On 3/10/2023 Friday afternoon, Kudos Middle School Level 2 students from San Marino, Walnut and Irvine campuses and Kudos Speech team contestants particiated in SCJFL 4th Speech tournament.

For all Middle school level 2 students, this was their first time attended any speech tournament, however, it was the 4th speech tournament for speech team members!

After 5 hours, 3 solid rounds, we had the final list who advanced to the final round ~

The results are:

Open Impromptu:
5th place: Betty Chen – Speech team
13th place: Kaylee Lu – Speech team
15th place: Brandon Xu – Irvine level 2 student

Open Spar:
6th place: Angela Unayan – Walnut level 2 student
12th place: Rebecca Ho – San Marino level 2 student

Congrats to all the students who were awarded and lets aim high for the next one.

Hello Kudos family!
During the weekend of February 11th-13th Kudos participated in one of the largest Middle School and High School speech and debate tournaments in the country, the 37th Annual Stanford Speech and Debate invitational. We competed across multiple formats in both speech and debate. The tournament featured students from around the United States as well as numerous other places around the world, such as China, Taiwan, Canada, Singapore, India, and Australia. Held online, this tournament saw students from grades 6-12 competing across multiple skill levels. We would like to highlight success across three debate formats.

In Middle School Lincoln Douglas Debate Michelle Zhang advanced to the Octo Finals (Top 16) then onto quarter finals (Top 8) out of 55 entries. She also received 2nd place overall speaker award! Very well done.

In Middle School Public Forum Debate, Kathleen Chen and Madeline Wong advanced through the Triple Octo finals (top 50), to the double Octo finals (top 32), and into the Octo finals (Top 16) out of 170 entry teams (340 contestants)! In the overall speaker award, Steven Wang won the 40 th place, Madeline Wong the 43 rd place, and Kathleen Chen the 62 nd place. Impressive results from their hard work and dedication.

Finally, in Middle School Congress, there were a total of 52 entries. Among the 12 finalists, Kudos contestants won 6 trophies! Michelle Pan placed 2nd overall, Audrey Huang Placed 5 th , Zoey Luc placed 6th overall, Hayley placed 8 th , Sanjana Chanumalla 10 th and Ethan Li placed 11 th . Very well done!

This was a long, multi-day tournament that featured the best competition from across the country and beyond. Many of our other debaters were as close as one win away from making the extremely competitive breaks, we are very proud of all those who competed at Stanford. We are looking forward to finishing the year strong at our upcoming in-person National tournament. Thank you again to all the parents for your support.

12/10/2022 Kudos Competed in the 2022 SCJFL Quarter 2 Middle School Debate Only Competition – Online
Here’s the result and ranking for this tournament.

10-22-2022 Hello Kudos Family and congratulations for completing the first tournament of the year! Students have worked hard to get started on debate for the year and this is the first of many successes to come. We had breaks/advancements across all three debate events, well done!

For the Congress Debate final round: Annie Zhao placed 10th, Hayley Fung placed 9th, Ethan Li placed 8th, Michelle Cheng placed 5th, Edwin Jiao placed 4th, Linda Jiang placed 3rd, Sanju Chanumalla placed 2nd, and Audrey Huang was the tournament champion for Congress, placing 1st! Well done!

For Public Forum, we had breaks into the finals as well as top 10 speakers. For Speaker awards Kathleen Chen placed 9th, Katherine Duan placed 7th, Madeline Wong placed 6th, and Karina Yue placed 2nd! Congratulations! For overall placings, Kathleen Chen & Madeline Wong broke into Semi-Finals, placing 9th. Karina Yue & Katherine Duan advanced to finals, winning the last round and taking 6th overall. Very Well Done!

Finally, Lincoln Douglas also saw success for speakers and overall placements. For speaker awards Yuna Wu placed 7th and Michelle Zhang placed 1st! Well Done! For overall rankings, Michelle Zhang broke to Semi-Finals. Yuna Wu and Jerry Zhang made it to the Final break round with Yuna placing 9th overall and Jerry placing 5th! Great Job!

Thank you to all students for your hard work and to the parents for your continued support. Let’s get working on this next tournament!