June 2012:

June brought the Kudos middle school team its biggest challenge yet, as our noble warriors traveled to Indianapolis to compete against the best teams in the country at the NJFL National Tournament. At a tournament like this, where 69 schools attend, and each event has nearly 100 entries, even a single finalist is quite an accomplishment. Kudos students achieved beyond even our most optimistic hopes. Joanna Hua and Natham Lam won the National Championship in Public Forum Debate. Additionally,our team earned 2 top 6 finishes (finalists) in Original Oratory and Congressional Debate, 2 additional semi-finalist awards in Original Oratory, 1 octafinalist award in Public Forum Debate, and a quarterfinalist in Prose. All this resulted in Kudos earning one of only three coveted Overall School of Excellence awards. The other two schools so awarded were both large private schools with big teams and long pedigrees of success.

Photo: Kudos College of Youth Leadership participated in 2012 U.S. National Junior Forensic League Speech and Debate Tournament. Twelve contestants and the coach stood behind eleven trophies and plaques. They are: (back row from left) Jerry Wang, Philip Chen, Jeffery Jen, George Hou, Scott Wheeler (coach), Nathan Lam, Johnson Li, Kevin Huang, Kirk Wu, Victor Li, (front row, from left) Caty Szeto, Joanna Hua, and Melinda Guo.

More Tournament Pictures

May 2012:

The final middle school league tournament, hosted by High Point at La Puente High School, was the only event held in May.

Kudos winners are pictured here. In the front row, from left to right, we see Melinda Guo, George Hou, Philip Chen, Joseph Kiang, Audrey Lam, and Amy Lin. In the back row, from left to right, we see Victor Li, Stanley Yu, Edison Wong, Nathan Lam, and Amy Lin.

Kudos nearly closed out Public Forum Debate, winning 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th places. We also earned 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th places in Original Oratory. It was an exceedingly strong performance to close out the league season.

Kudos celebrates a dominant performance at La Puente.

Edison Wong and Stanley Yu – 1^st place, Public Forum Debate

Joanna Hua and Nathan Lam – 2^nd place, Public Forum Debate

Jerry Wang and Kirk Wu – 3^rd place, Public Forum Debate

Philip Chen and Joseph Kiang – 4^th place, Public Forum Debate

Amy Lin and Audrey Lam – 5^th place, Public Forum Debate

Victor Li – 1^st place, Original Oratory

Melinda Guo – 2^nd place, Original Oratory

George Hou – 4^rd place, Original Oratory

Keon Peng – 5^th place, Original Oratory

The Wong and Yu families enjoy victory!

April 2012:

April brought the Glendale Invitational Middle School Tournament.  This  event was jointly organized by National Junior Forensic League, Glendale Community College, and Wilshire College as a warm-up for NJFL Nationals.  More than ten schools and approximately two hundred students participated in this competition.  Competition was stiff, with schools such as Harker from Northern California traveling here to compete.  21 students from Kudos participated, and they were dominant, bringing home 1^st place Championships in Public Forum Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, and Humorous Interp. Additionally, Kudos accomplished 11 trophies ranging from 2^nd to 6^th place, in these events and others, including Congressional Debate, Dramatic Interp, and Impromptu Speaking.

Kirk Wu (Left) and Jerry Wang (Right) were honored as Public Forum champions of the 2012 Warm-up Speech and Debate Competition.

The Kudos winners are listed as follow:

Champions
Public Forum: Jerry Wang and Kirk Wu
Original Oratory: Stanley Yu
Extemporaneous speaking: Edison Wong
Humorous Interpretation: Melinda Guo
Oratorical Interpretation: Johnson Li

2nd Place
Dramatic Interpretation: George Hou

3rd Place
Storytelling: Melinda Guo
Congressional Debate: Nathan Lam
Oratorical Interpretation: Rachel Lin

4th Place
Extemporaneous speaking: Jonathan Liu
Humorous Interpretation: George Hou
Dramatic Interpretation: Jerry Wang

5th Place
Original Oratory: Victor Li
Storytelling: Caty Szeto

6th Place
Dramatic Interpretation: Joanna Hua
Impromptu: Caty Szeto

Top 8
Lincoln Douglas Debate: Victor Li
Public Forum: Amy Lin, Kelly Liu, Philip Chen, Joseph Kiang

Top 16
Public Forum: Jeffery Jen and Kevin Huang
Public Forum:  Joanna Hua and Nathan Lam
Congressional Debate: Joseph Kiang
Congressional Debate: Kevin Huang
Congressional Debate: Philip Chen

Kudos won more trophies than any other team at the 2012 Glendale Invitational. Pictured here with their trophies: (Front row, from left) Melinda Guo, Joanna Hua, Kelly Liu, and Jonathan Liu, (Back row, from left) Johnson Li, Edison Wong, George Hou, Rachel Lin, Philip Chen, Victor Li, Caty Szeto, and Amy Lin

More Tournament Pictures

Later in the month of April, three of our elementary students earned trophies at the Elementary Invitational at Ribet.  Joseph Dong and Shereen Wu earned 2^nd place with their Duo speech, while Justin Yeh pulled down 3^rd in impromptu.

February and March 2012:

No tournaments were scheduled for February.

March brought the league tournament at Nicolas middle school, where Jerry Wang and Victor Li fought hard against a tough field to bring home 2^nd place in Public Forum Debate. NFL Qualifiers are also held in March, and, there, Kudos-trained Kevin Chou finished 4^th in Congressional Debate and earned a bid to the National Tournament held in Indianapolis.

January 2012:

The new year began with three scheduled tournaments in the first month of 2012. At the Cal Lutheran High School Invitational Tournament, David Dosch won 1^st place in Novice Lincoln-Douglas debate, while Morven Sharp earned 3^rd, and Emily Zeng earned 4^th. Morven also achieved 1^st place in Novice Persuasive Speaking, while Jeremy Stewart pulled in 2^nd. Lastly, David and Jeremy teamed up to capture 3^rd place in Novice Duo Interp.

Later in the month, Kudos took the JV Lincoln-Douglas debate championship at the Pepperdine University Invitational, when David Dosch earned 1^st place. Finally, at the middle school league tournament towards the end of January, Melinda Guo won the Original Advocacy championship, while Jason Jia finished 4^th in that event. Audrey Lam and Joseph Kiang earned the 6^th place trophy in Public Forum Debate, and Caty Szeto finished 2^nd in impromptu as well.