Third Quarter SCJFL Debate Tournament – February 9th, 2019

More than one hundred students from nine middle schools competed on February 9 at East LA College in Monterey Park.

For Lincoln Douglas debate, Kudos students Christina Feng and Franklin Zhu advanced to Semi-finals.

Christina went into the finals with 5-1 record, obtained “100″ full Speaker score in two of the rounds, and came out the Champion!

Franklin went 3-3, reached the destination in 4th Place, missing the 3rd Place by marginal speaker points.

In Public Forum, 32 teams from nine schools competed.
Five Kudos teams advanced to the Top 12:

Sunny Sun & Ellie Jiang,
Danielle Workman & Austin Hong,
Cloris Shi & Isabel Gan,
Joy Sun & Katelyn Gan, and
Ethan Liu & Ethan Peng.

The final rounds consisted of six teams, Sunny and Ellie won the round, like two other teams, but was placed 3rd because of Speaker Points (With equal standing, the team who got Speaker Points of 197 won the Championship, another team with Speaker Points of 196 garnered the 2nd Place, Sunny and Ellie placed 3rd with 195 Speaker Points. Fierce competition indeed!)

In Congress, Kudos students Madeline Ang won 3rd Place and Kaylee Wong 4th.

Let’s take a look at the results and photos ~

The first SCJFL debate tournament of the academic year on 10/27/2018 was held at East LA College. Nine schools participated with 27 teams in PF, 28 competitors in LD, and 29 in Congress. The long and highly competitive event went from 8 a.m. till 10 p.m.

Experienced Irvine PF team members Sunny Sun and Ellie Jiang who had gone through the challenges of local and national tournaments got 2nd place with their fluid debate skills and perfect teamwork.

Temple City PF competitors Chloe Leong and Danielle Workman, despite being first time competitors, got 5th place overall making them excited and proud.
Veteran LD competitor Christina Feng was unstoppable in this tournament. She achieved perfect scores in each round all the way to Finals, then brought home 1st place without surprise. Her teammates Ivan Leong and Ted Hong got 3rd and 5th in LD, respectively, both excellent achievements indeed!

Congress Debate results are also stellar in this tournament. Ingrid Luo from Kudos Irvine campus was crowned Champion in her first-ever competition, a rare feat! Cassie Kao and Christina Xu from Temple City got placed 2nd and 3rd , and Irvine Kerry Zhang and Cailyn Wang received 4th and 6th place.

Justin Hong from Temple City received Best Presiding Officer award with his clear diction and projection; he was delighted with the award!
Congratulations to all Kudos competition team members. The results bode a bright year ahead!

Public Forum debate Sunny Sun with Ellie Jiang 2nd Place
Ellie Jiang with Sunny Sun 2nd Place
Chloe Leong with Danielle Workman 5th Place
Danielle Workman with Chloe Leong 5th Place
Ethan Liu 3rd Speaker
Chloe Leong 6th Speaker
Ellie Jiang 8th Speaker
Lincoln Douglas debate Christina Feng 1st Place
Ivan Leong 3rd Place
Ted Hong 5th Place
Ivan Leong 2nd Speaker
Christina Feng 3rd Speaker
English Franklin Zhu 5th Speaker
Ted Hong 7th Speaker
Lily Johnson 8th Speaker
Congress debate Justin Hong Best P.O.
Ingrid Luo 1st Place
Cassie Kao 2nd Place
Christina Xu 3rd Place
Kerry Zhang 4th Place
Cailyn Wang 6th Place

The 1st SCJFL Speech Tournament took place on 10/19 at Jefferson Middle School. A total of 173 students from nine schools participated.

Kudos had 10 competitors entered in the tournament and 4 of them broke into Finals and brought back trophies, marking a good performance overall and delighted the parents and coaches alike.

8th grader Cassie Kao have been training with Kudos since 5th grade and this year she chose Congress and Speech as her focus. She was crowned Champion in Prose in the tournament! Cassie has been a role model for her peers due to her diligence and positive attitude, no matter how busy she is, she always shows up and is ready to work when it comes to competition training.

Kaylee Wong finished the first two speech and debate fundamental years at Kudos and decided to join the Speech Team as a competitor after convincing her parents this year. Her determination and great work ethics were exemplified with her taking home 6th place in Prose in her first ever competition!

7th grader Ryan Sieh took home 3rd place in Storytelling among 32 competitors in this event. Being an experienced competitor, his consistent performance has made his parents proud.

Like Cassie, 8th grader Christina Xu has also been with Kudos for more than 3 years. She is naturally gifted when it comes to body movements and is great with voice and facial expressions on stage. She was placed 4th place in Storytelling and is very happy with the result.

Also worth mentioning was 8th grade new comer Isabel Cai. She performed very well in prelims, placing 2nd in each round and although she did not break into Finals due to minimal score differences, but her consistent and mature performance was worthy of accolades!

We congratulate all competitors! It didn’t matter if the students won a trophy or not, this first competition of the year was no doubt a great start and an encouragement to all students here at Kudos.

On May 19th, 2018, at Roosevelt Elementary School in San Gabriel, 235 elementary students from eight schools competed in speech and debate. This was the largest elementary-level tournament ever held in Southern California. In SPAR debate (Spontaneous Argumentation) alone, there were 99 entries. The full-day Saturday event was filled with excitement and fun.

Thirty-three Kudos 4th and 5th grade students from Temple City and Walnut campuses’ Level II classes participated in the tournament. Out of the 33 students, 24 trophies were won! That’s more than 70% achievement.

Out of the 99 SPAR entries, 30 were advanced to final rounds. 13 Kudos students were among the 30 final contestants, which represented 43% of the final group!

Parents spent the day with their children, sharing, for some, the first forensics tournament experience in their lives! All in all, a great Mother’s Day celebration!

Temple City Level 2 Students with teacher Mr. Seymour

Walnut Elementary Level II Students with teacher Mr. Oscar Mira

Original Interpretation Placement and Student Names

1 Alan Alexander and Ethan Dong

2 Salvia Sun and Stephanie Jing

3 Charlene Pau

Duo Interpretation Placement and Student Names

2 Alan Alexander and Ethan Dong

4 Iris Mao and Nicole Fung

5 Pearl Hsieh and Faith Huang

SPAR Final Round Placement and Student Names

6th place: Alan Alexander

7th place: Eric Zhang (Walnut)

8th place: Ethan Dong

9th place: Evan Yao (Walnut)

14th: Evan Chen

16th: Ted Hong (Walnut)

21st: Stephanie Jin

22nd: Andy Liu

26th: Daniel Sheng

27th: Cindy Chou (Walnut)

28th: Katie Chen (Walnut)

29th: Katelyn Li

30th: Sophia Ren

More than three-hundred students from thirty-five schools, sixteen states, and three countries attended the second annual Middle School National Tournament of Champions hosted by the University of Kentucky.

The university hosted the first high school Tournament of Champions in 1971. Fifteen Kudos students attended the tournament, and nine of them went home with trophies. Kudos was one of only two schools in the country with semifinalists in more than one debate events.

In policy debate, Ethan Chang and Aaron Lee finished in second place. Ethan was also seventh speaker.

In Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, Aaron Zhang won the third place and was seventh speaker. Christina Feng reached the partial octafinal round (top 10).

In public forum debate, the teams of Abigail Fang and Grace Jin and Alex Fu and Ava Ye both reached the octafinal round (9th place). Sunny Sun was 12th speaker among 136 competitors in PF.
Also in PF, the team of Rachel Bai and Allison Yue, and the team of Ellie Jiang and Sunny Sun finished 3-3, an outstanding record, missed breaking by a slim margin.

Ethan Chang CX w/ Aaron 2nd place
Ethan Chang CX 7th speaker
Aaron Lee CX w/ Ethan 2nd place
Aaron Zhang LD Semifinals (top 4)
Aaron Zhang LD 7th speaker
Christina Feng LD Octafinals (top 10)
Abigail Fang PF w/ Grace Octafinals (top 16)
Grace Jin PF w/ Abigail Octafinals (top 16)
Alex Fu PF w/ Ava Octafinals (top 16)
Ava Ye PF w/ Alex Octafinals (top 16)
Sunny Sun PF 12th speaker

SCJFL 4th Quarter Debate Tournament at Cal Lutheran University:

The fourth league tournament of the school year was held this past weekend at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
Kudos students won trophies in all four debate events.

In public forum debate, three out of the seven teams receiving trophies were Kudos teams. Emma Sieh and Christina Xu from the Temple City campus and Alex Fu and Abigail Fang and Sunny Sun and Ellie Jiang from the Irvine campus were all recognized with winning 3-1 records.

Abigail was the tournament’s 6th speaker. Sunny received 7th speaker, Ellie 8th speaker, and Christina 10th speaker.

In Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, Christina Feng was one of three students who finished with a 3-1 record or better. She was also the tournament’s top speaker. Maxwell Lee was 5th speaker, Franklin Zhu 6th speaker, and Maylin Chen 7th speaker.

In policy debate, Aaron Lee and Ethan Chang finished in first place.

In congressional debate, Justin Lim finished in first place and Kaylee Wong, Justin Hong, and Brian Feng had top five finishes. Overall, Kudos had four of the five tournament finalists in congress.

Aaron Lee CX w/ Ethan 1st
Ethan Chang CX w/ Aaron 1st
Emma Sieh PF w/ Christina Finalist (top 7)
Christina Xu PF w/ Emma Finalist (top 7)
Sunny Sun PF w/ Ellie Finalist (top 7)
Ellie Jiang PF w/ Sunnie Finalist (top 7)
Alex Fu PF w/ Abigail Finalist (top 7)
Abigail Fang PF w/ Alex Finalist (top7)
Abigail Fang PF 6th speaker
Sunny Sun PF 7th speaker
Ellie Jiang PF 8th speaker
Christina Xu PF 10th speaker
Christina Feng LD Finalist (top 3)
Christina Feng LD 1st speaker
Maxwell Lee LD 5th speaker
Franklin Zhu LD 6th speaker
Maylin Chen LD 7th speaker
Justin Lim Congress 1st
Kaylee Wong Congress Finalist (top 5)
Justin Hong Congress Finalist (top 5)
Brian Feng Congress Finalist (top 5)
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4th SCJFL speech tournament was held on Jefferson Middle School on April 13. Friday, which concluded as the final tournament of this academic year.

Kudos had total 14 contestants participated in several events.

Among over 150 students, Anvitha Kosuri won Championship in Poetry , Cassie Kao took home 2nd place trophy in Humorous Interpretation along with 3 level II students came from Irvine campus shared this joyful and exciting experiences they had long hoped to witness.

Anvitha was thrilled to receive her Championship trophy

Anvitha with parents

Cassie flashed a huge smile with her mother and 2nd place trophy in HI.

Congratulations to everyone’s hard work this year, coaches are moved deeply to see parents’ efforts for believing in their children, for standing by their side tournament after tournament, It’s also a great pleasure to see every speech team member had grown so much and gained a great deal of confidence by pushing their limits, trying new different things, overcame their fears and doubts.

Helaine Zhao from Irvine campus and father.

Teddy Wang from Irvine campus preparing his notes between rounds.

Melody’s mother, Melody and Ryan, Cassie

Speech and debate competition is not the only way to learn how to express thoughts and ideas, but it is the most effective and meaningful way to let students’ inner voice to be heard, to unbound students’ creativities and it is certainly a gateway to embark a journey that nobody, even the parents can ever imagine.

Proudest coach Mr. Seymour with Anvitha and Cassie.