One-hundred, thirty-six students from eleven schools attended the third quarter SCJFL debate tournament at La Salle High school.

In policy debate, Matthew Zhang and George Zhang and Caleb Lee and Eric Gao were tournament co-champions. Both had perfect 4-0 records. Eric was top speaker, with George receiving second speaker and Caleb third.

In public forum debate, Margaret Li and Nathan Chu were named one of five finalists by virtue of having a 4-1 record. Emma Chen and Nanette Zhang and Lydia Fraser and William Chang were among the ten teams to clear to round five.

William received 4th speaker, Emma 8th speaker, and Lydia 10th.

In Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, Aaron Zhang was named a finalist by virtue of having a 4-1 record. He was also 7th speaker.

Caleb Lee CX w/ Eric 1st
Eric Gao CX w/ Caleb 1st
George Zhang CX w/ Matthew 1st
Matthew Zhang CX w/ George 1st
Eric Gao CX 1st speaker
George Zhang CX 2nd speaker
Caleb Lee CX 3rd speaker
Margaret Li PF w/ Nathan Finalist (top 6)
Nathan Chu PF w/ Margaret Finalist (top 6)
Emma Chen PF w/ Nanette Broke to r5 (top 10)
Nanette Zhang PF w/ Emma Broke to r5 (top 10)
Lydia Fraser PF w/ William Broke to r5 (top 10)
William Chang PF w/ Lydia Broke to r5 (top 10)
Lydia Fraser PF 10th speaker
Emma Chen PF 8th speaker
William Chang PF 4th speaker
Aaron Zhang LD Finalist (top 8)
Aaron Zhang LD 7th speaker

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One-hundred, fifty-five students from forty-five schools and five states attended the USC Damus Spring Trojan Championships at USC this past weekend.

Thirteen Kudos students were among them—most were middle school students competing in fields of nearly exclusively high school students.

Despite this, Kudos students managed to earn recognition.

In junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, Ethan Chang reached the semifinal round (top 4), and Raymond Mo reached the partial quarterfinal round (top 5). Five other Kudos students finished with three wins or more.

In varsity policy debate, Caleb Lee was ninth place speaker and Eric Gao was tenth place speaker, in a very competitive field.

Ethan Chang Junior Varsity LD Semifinalist (top 4)
Raymond Mo Junior Varsity LD Partial quarters (top 5)
Caleb Lee Varsity CX 9th Speaker
Eric Gao Varsity CX 10th Speaker

Just after one year’s training in a speech and debate overview course in Kudos Communication Pro class, Jannelle Liu decided to follow her passion in Speech, joined Kudos Speech Team, and went full force into competition in September of 2016.

As a ninth-grader she is now also a member of her high school Speech Club where she got opportunities to hone her skills, too. Before the holiday season came along, she had already won three awards: Second Place in Novice Expository at Cypress College Invitational, Third Place in Novice Informative at Cal State Fullerton fall tournament, and a Finalist trophy from 2016 Bargain Belt in Expository Speaking.

Great showing, Jannelle, keep it up! (Jannelle posed with her proud Kudos teacher, Ms. Green.)

220 debaters from thirty schools competed on December 10th at the 2016 Cypress College High School Invitational Tournament.

Twenty-seven Kudos students were among them. Coaches Mr.Perez and Mr. R were present to support our students.

In novice Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, ninth grader Jiwon Chae reached the semifinal round (top 4), and seventh grader Ethan Chang reached the quarterfinal round (top 8). Ethan was also fourth speaker. In novice Public Forum (PF) debate, the sixth grade team of Margaret Li and Nathan Chu and the eighth grade team of Emma Chen and Nanette Zhang both reached the quarterfinal round (top 8). Nanette was also sixth speaker. Also receiving speaker awards from Kudos were Elise Kwon and Ivan Lin.

This was a very impressive showing for Kudos considering they were competing against high school students.

Congratulations to all Kudos students!

Ethan Chang Novice LD Quarters – Top 8
Ethan Chang Novice LD 4th Speaker
Jiwon Chae Novice LD Semis – Top 4
Margaret Li Novice PF (with Nathan) Quarters – Top 8
Nathan Chu Novice PF (with Margaret) Quarters – Top 8
Elise Kwon Novice PF 9th Speaker
Ivan Lin Novice PF 10th Speaker
Nanette Zhang Novice PF (with Emma) Quarters – Top 8
Emma Chen Novice PF (with Nanette) Quarters – Top 8
Nanette Zhang Novice PF 6th Speaker

In June 2016, Kudos College of Youth Leadership attended the National Middle School Speech and Debate Tournament in Utah with 28 participants and again received excellent results. For the fifth (5th) year in a row, Kudos was awarded the School of Excellence in Debate, an honor only 5 schools receive each year.

According to the Nationals’ published results, Eric Gao and Matthew Zhang defeated 98 competitors to advance to the final eight in Policy Debate, which is rare for 7th graders. Thomas Chon and Alexander Liang advanced to the top 16 in the same event. In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Purvaja Balaji advanced to the top 16 and Olivia Kaneko to the top 32, among 91 contestants. Helina Zhao and Alex Liu placed in the top 32 among 126 teams in Public Forum. Anabell Xu and Raymond Mo won 4 rounds out of 6, and teams Emma Chen / Nanette Zhang and Aaron Zhang / Aaron Lee both won 3 rounds each.

Kudos Principal Laura Lin said this year’s Nationals hosted a record-breaking 136 schools from 33 states, and the overall strength of the schools preceded previous years. The Kudos team was aided by many parents that volunteered their time and efforts. This enabled the students to perform well.
Coaches Scott Wheeler, Andrew Rothschild and Andrew Perez were top performers back in their respective high school debate teams, and they did an exceptional job guiding the Kudos National team. Ever since the topics were announced for the Nationals on May 1st, they’ve been working tirelessly to prepare students!

Looking back at Kudos’ tournament history in the past six years, Kudos is one of only two schools that received the School of Excellence in Debate for 5 consecutive years (2012-2016), with the only other one being the hundred-year-old private Harker School in Northern California. In the 136 schools that participated this year, 34 were from California. Kudos earning the distinction of being one of the top schools is a great honor to uphold, and we wish to ride this success into all future tournaments.

Principal Lin indicated that her goal with Kudos is not to make every student into a competition winner, but to improve every student’s skills in communication, increase his or her confidence, and help them become leaders of tomorrow.

These effective communication and critical thinking skills that are at the core of the Kudos spirit and philosophy, are considered to be so important within the U.S. education system that they have been strongly emphasized in Common Core standards.

But the skills did not come easy. Half of all Kudos National Team members have been trained with Kudos since elementary school.

Their skills will help them become strong leaders of tomorrow.

11th grader Jerry Wang achieved a remarkable achievement. He won the Nationals High School division Policy championship this year representing his high school. In 2013, he won the Nationals Middle School division Policy championship representing Kudos. For both championships, he was coached by Kudos Head Coach Scott Wheeler. It is extremely rare for any student to achieve either of these great successes; but Jerry, in winning both championships, is really a Policy Debate legend!

The fall semester registration is ongoing; we welcome all parents to inquire about our class offerings. Tel: 626-286-6889. www.KudosEducation.com