We’re excited to share some good news from the 2024 Wolfcub Invitational Debate Tournament! On April 20th, the Kudos Middle School debate team participated in this tournament held at Claremont High School. This event marked the last tournament of the 2023-2024 school year, and once again, the Kudos Middle School debate team achieved big success. Here are the winners:

We’re thrilled to share some exciting news from the 2024 SCJFL Elementary Speech and Debate Tournament – The Cantrell Invitational, held at Roosevelt Elementary on April 13th! Our elementary team gave it their all in the last tournament of the school year 2023-2024 and once again brought home numerous trophies. Here are our amazing achievers:



Congratulations to all our students for their outstanding performances! We’re incredibly proud of their hard work and dedication. A big thank you to our coaches, parents, and supporters. Let’s celebrate our students’ success together!

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