February 22nd, 2020 we saw the third SCJFL Middle School Speech Tournament at Emerson Middle School in Los Angeles, CA.
There were total of 183 students participated in this tournament.
Kudos took home six trophies in the seven events in which they were entered.
Kudos competitors received 1st place in Prose, 1st place in Humorous Interpretation, and 2nd place in Impromptu and Duo Interpretation, 6th place in Declamation, another 6th place in Impromptu.

Carolyn, Prose Champion, on stage.

Lisa, (first row, left hand side) took 2nd place in Open Impromptu!!

Melody and Faith.

Ryan Sieh and Faith Huang, with their coach, Mr. Seymour~

Carolyn Wang, with her coach, Mr. Seymour~

Andy on stage receiving his trophy(Grey Suit).

Andy, 6th place in Declamation.

On 2/8-2/10, Kudos sent 26 students to one of the largest tournaments held in the country at Stanford and had an overall very positive experience.

Kudos Irvine took two PF teams and Temple City three. Sarah Chen and Annie Jiang finished prelims as the 11th overall team at the tournament out of 186 teams total. This gave them a bye in the first elimination round.

Sarah and Annie advanced to the double-octafinal round which makes them one of the top 32 teams at the tournament. Sarah finished as the tournament’s 20th overall speaker, and Annie finished as the tournament’s 41st overall speaker. Certainly, an outstanding job by Sarah and Annie since this is a high school tournament.

Ava Ye and Joy Sun, who triumphed in multiple local tournaments, won three rounds and finished in the top half of teams at 86th overall. They tested a new strategy which did not carry them to elimination rounds. New debaters Kathrine Kligys and Kaitlyn Huang proved overwhelming courage in winning three rounds, while Madeline Ang and Shirlyn Huang came out with two wins. Seventh graders Stephanie Jing and Jessica Xue ended up with only one win, but ranked in the middle on Speakers list of 372 total competitors, showing potential!

On the LD side, three Kudos members participated in this fiercely competed event among 140 debaters. In her first major tournament after transitioned to LD debate, Julianne Wu won three tough rounds. Daniel Wu as well as Nathan Chen, who is among the youngest at 6th grade, all competed with great courage and high spirits!

Congress team competed against some of the best and brightest in the country.
Six of our ten made semifinals at one of the toughest tournaments in the United States.

Congrats to all who broke but specifically Zachary Chang for his first ever break, and Anne Chen for also winning best Presiding Officer.

We believe that having our talented middle schoolers go against high schoolers was an excellent experience and a chance to show off their skills. Our coaches were very impressed by the maturity that was shown by our Stanford students.

Traveling is not an easy feat, especially when it comes to travelling with 26 students and family member, but our Kudos kids did a great job at being responsible and being mature team players.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the parents that came up with us to Stanford and helped keep an eye on the kids, as well as a thank you to the students that were excellent travelers and great competitors.

Speech team:
Evelyn Tsoi Quarter finalist in Impromptu against high schoolers.
AUSTIN Hong 4th place in International Extemp against high schoolers.
Onwards to the next tournament in April! Keep up the great work!

Melinda Guo (Far left) is Kudos Alumni of 2011~2013. She is now a Sophomore at Stanford University. She was a fierce competitor in local speech tournament scene. Melinda not only won numerous trophies in Southern California, she also took home 4th place in Humorous Interpretation and 6th place in Original Oratory in NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) back in 2013. She visited Kudos speech team members at Stanford tournament, her presence cheered them up and it was such a joy to see Melinda again since graduated from Kudos! 

As the year moves along, Kudos Temple City continues to perform well and participate in many tournaments across California.

On February 1st, Kudos went to SCFJL at ELAC and continued our culture of excellence and success.

The public forum teams for Kudos (Temple City and Irvine) did so well that the final rounds were cancelled because we closed out (meaning that every team in semi-finals won, making the final rounds only Kudos).
Our teams went in, did exceedingly well and had fun doing it!

On the Lincoln Douglas side of things, Kudos won 1st place amongst some high quality competition.

On Congress team, our students had a fantastic February as they prepared for twenty topics in the course of 3 weeks.

Out of the three SCJFL Congress tournaments this year, Kudos has had a whopping 39 of the possible 41 finalists, all three top Presiding Officers, and all three champions.

Andrew Huang and Uma Shukla finaled at a league tournament for the first time this season, which means they are now qualified to attend SCJFL So-Cal Championships in addition to the 19 other Kudos students who have already qualified.

Uma also won best presiding officer, and Kalen Han won his first tournament championship.

Kalen Han, Fiona Zhou, Lindsey Jiang and Kelly Lin are the only students in our League to have placed in the top 6 at multiple league tournaments this year.

Special shoutouts to Lindsey, Kelly, and Anne Chen, who are the only students in our entire League to make congress finals at all three league tournaments.

Overall, this was a great weekend for Kudos!

Kudos swept the tournament this past weekend at East Los Angeles College with Kudos Irvine finishing as tournament champions and having the top overall speaker.

The students showed remarkable determination to successfully complete a 14 hour tournament and finish as champions.

Kudos Irvine brought 5 public forum teams; 3 of them finished in the top 4 overall, including the tournament champions and runners up.

Out of 10 students, 6 earned top 10 speaker awards including the 1st overall and 3rd overall speakers.

Annie Jiang and Sarah Chen earned 1st place team honors, and finished as tournament champions. Additionally, Annie Jiang earned the top overall speaker award and Sarah Chen earned 3rd place overall speaker.

Sophia Dai and Melody Yu were right behind them. Sophia and Melody finished as tournament runners up, earning the 2nd place overall team award. Sophia earned the 6th place overall speaker award. Joy Sun and Katelyn Gan finished as the 4th place team overall, and Katelyn earned 10th place speaker.

In Temple City, Of our 8 public forums teams, 6 made it into elimination rounds, and 2 of our 4 LD debaters qualified to elimination rounds.

Overall, Kudos had many successes, awards, and, most importantly, a lot of fun this past weekend! Each tournament gives our students more experience and more passion for this activity, and we are so very pleased by their performances this weekend.

Please enjoy your break, and we’ll see you in the new decade ready to continue to improve and get ready for the next tournament!

Congress:
Fiona Zhou – 1st place
Anne Chen – 2nd place
Lindsey Jiang – 4th place
Qianzi Loo – 5th place
Serena Guo – 6th place

LD:
Daniel Wu: 3rd place & 4th speaker
Rachel Xu: 6th place
Julianne Wu: 3rd Speaker
Nathan Chen: 9th Speaker

PF:
Annie Jiang 1st Place w/ Sarah Chen & 1st Speaker

Sarah Chen 1st Place w/ Annie Jiang & 3rd Speaker

Sophia Dai 2nd Place w/ Melody Yu & 6th Speaker

Melody Yu 2nd Place w/ Sophia Dai

Melody Chang & Katherine Kligys: 3rd Place & 8th Speaker

Joy Sun 4th Place w/ Katelyn Gan

Katelyn Gan 4th Place w/ Joy Sun & 10th Speaker

Shirlyn Huang w/ Madeline Ang: 6th Place

Stephanie Jing 7th Place w/ Jessica Xue & 7th Speaker

Susie Gu 8th place w/ Kaitlyn Huang & 5th Speaker

Jevon Mao 9th Speaker, Debated admirably with Nancy Sun

Nancy Sun Debated admirably with Jevon Mao

Claire Liu Debated admirably with Andy Chen

Andy Chen Debated admirably with Claire Liu

Congress coach Mr. Feldman led a warm-up circle before all students went to 1st round

Temple City PF team – girl power !!!

Let’s do it~

Waiting for results/trophies

Daniel Wu, LD 3rd place with coach Mr. Schaupp

Big Kudos debate family

December 6th, 2019 was the second SCJFL Middle School Speech Tournament at Walter Reed Middle School.

Kudos was awarded 9 trophies out of the eight events they were entered in.

Kudos took 1st place in Program Oral Interpretation, 1st and 2nd place in Extemp, and 3rd and 4th place in Dramatic Interpretation. Full results below:

Program Oral Interpretation
Ryan Sieh – 1st Place

Dramatic Interpretation
Carolyn Wang – 3rd Place
Melody Cen – 4th Place

Impromptu
Lisa Peng – 6th Place
Evelyn Tsoi – 7th Place

Poetry
Justin Chen – 4th Place
Andy Zhou – 5th Place

Extemp
Austin Hong – 1st Place
Kevin Tsai – 2nd Place

SCJFL 1st Quarter Debate Tournament at East Los Angeles College (10/26)

Kudos had a powerful showing last Saturday (10/26) at East Los Angles College, First Quarter Debate Tournament held by SCJFL where nine middle schools participated.

The students showed remarkable determination to successfully complete a 14 and a half hour tournament and rank well doing it.

Nine of Kudos competitors were from the Irvine Public Forum Debate squad. Out of those nine, 4 students placed as part of the top 10 team, while 2 more received top 10 speaker awards.

Andy Chen and Claire Liu earned 4th place team honors with a 5-1 record and going undefeated in the elimination rounds. In their final round, they beat a reigning national champion in impromptu speaking. This was both Andy and Claire’s first tournament.

Sophia Dai and Melody Yu made it to the final round and earned 7th place team honors.
Sarah Chen and Annie Jiang’s performance earned them the 6th and 7th overall speaker awards.
Joy Sun and Seth Chang finished in the top half of the tournament as the 15th team overall.
Nancy Sun was not eligible for awards because she competed maverick (solo).

Public Forum squad from Temple City campus ride out with 2 teams (Kaitlyn & Suzie; Shirlyn & Madelyn) making it to outrounds with one team (Shirlyn & Madelyn) making it to finals in PF, with one student making it to finals in LD (Julieanne). Joleen Wong was the 8th overall speaking in PF, as well!

On the other hand, in Congress, Kudos students dominated last weekend, with every limited preparation student breaking in an event and most of the congress finalists, including the top Presiding Officer.

Many students were at their first tournament as members of the competition team and were very close to breaking.

14 of the 15 students in congress finals, including champion Bena Feng were from Kudos. First time congress competitors Tiffany Fu, Tim Cai, and Uma Shukla were all 1 point from finaling.

Special Shoutouts to Kerry Zhang who was the #1 seed in prelims, won best Presiding Officer, and took 10th in congress.

October 25th, 2019 was the first SCJFL Middle School Speech Tournament at Jefferson Middle School in San Gabriel, CA. Total participants 200 students from 8 schools.

Kudos took home trophies in six of the seven events they were entered in at The Wolpert-Gawron Invitational. Kudos took 2nd place in Duo Interpretation, 3rd place in Prose/Impromptu/Novice SPAR, as well as many others.

Carolyn Wang, Prose 3rd place

October 19, 2019 was the SCJFL Elementary Tournament at Roosevelt Elementary School in San Gabriel, CA. Kudos entered 13 of 166 students from 8 schools competing at the tournament. 5 students were awarded trophies as Kudos took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place in Novice SPAR as well as winning 1st place in Duo Interpretation.

Duo Interpretation
Cynthia Chao & Claire Xuan – 1st Place

Novice SPAR
Jerry Zhang – 2nd Place
Isabella Ma – 3rd Place
Katherine Duan – 7th Place

Informative Speech
Michelle Zhang – 4th place

Good showing ~

Cynthia and Claire, you two did such a wonderful job !!!

Congrats to Katherine ~

Congrats to Jerry

Congrats to Isabella

Duo girls with Mr. Seymour

Kudos Group Photos

Kudos Group Dinner

Coach Evan Help Students Vocal Exercise

Christina-LD

Chloe and Ivan – PF

Ava and Helaine – PF