Congrats!! NSDA Middle School National Debate Tournament – Dallas, Texas June 16th-19th, 2015

Thanks to the hard work of 14 talented debaters, Kudos took home the Middle School Debate Excellence Award at the Middle School National Tournament, an honor bestowed to only five schools in the nation. This marks the fourth consecutive year Kudos has won the award! In a pool of 126 teams in Public Forum, Ian/Vincent and Jacob/Thomas made it to the Double-Octafinal round. Moreover, Mei Johnson was the 10^th place speaker at the tournament.

Despite having a 5-1 record and ranking 15^th among all teams in preliminary rounds, Ian/Vincent did not advance after Double. Mei Johnson and Aaron Fong garnered 4-2 record in preliminary rounds, same as Jacob/Thomas, but did not clear to elimination rounds because of close cumulative speaker points. Out of 76 competitors in Lincoln Douglas, both Kelly and Shriya broke to elimination rounds. Kelly, with 4-2 record and 21^st ranking in prelim, lost in the Octafinal round. Shriya won four straight elimination rounds to advance to the final round where she lost on a close decision, and garnered the Runner-Up trophy! Meanwhile, Eric Gao and Mei Johnson lead their teammates to help Shriya and other debaters that advanced win their outrounds.

Most importantly, special mention is due to Coach Will Gingold and Advisor Andrew Rothschild. They stepped up in February of this year, taking over the helm of Kudos Tournament Team, solidified Kudos PF, LD, and Policy debaters’ capability, and created remarkable results at Santa Clara University Tournament (March, 2015), Glendale Community College State Championship and National Warm-up Tournament (April, 2015), and now the Nationals (June, 2015). After the Nationals debate topics were announced on May 1^st, 2015, the new coaches spared no efforts in steering the 14 students through research, case writing, card cutting, blocks preparation, and scrimmages, all while the students were going through their final exams and late-night studies at their respective schools.

The wonderful photos shown here will not be possible without the help from the doting eyes of Kudos parents: Aaron’s Mom Pauline, and Olivia’s father Shu. Sylvester’s aunt, Jessica, was entrusted with being the rock center of the National team, taking care of all minute details including the purse.
As a famous author Daniel Coyle reported in his best-selling book “The Talent Code”: “Talent grows in clusters because talent is best grown within networks of high-performing students, guided by skilled coaches; those coaches develop settings in which bright, motivated students are competitive but supportive, challenging each other while simultaneously helping and encouraging each other, thereby creating a relentless upward-spiral of achievement.” That’s what Kudos has been and aspire to be.

As Kudos Principal always says, “At the end of the day, it is not how many trophies you get, although we have now more than 600 awards won by our brilliant students throughout the years, but whether you can instill something that can accompany the students throughout their lives to help them become an upright and successful person; qualities such as decency, hard work, team spirit, sportsmanship, and a network of talented friends.”

2015 Nationals Results