December 2013

December was a very busy month.

First, our debaters attended the La Costa Canyon Invitational, where Victor Li achieved a Quarterfinalist award, and David Dosch accomplished Octafinalist, both in Lincoln-Douglas debate.  David also earned the top speaker award in this event, and was the top seed going into out rounds.

Next was the 35th annual Los Angeles County Mock Trial Competition, held at the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Caty gets grilled by the defense attorney in this session of mock trial.

The competition featured over 300 students and 30 school teams, and was adjudicated by actual Superior Court judges.  We brought a smaller team than most schools, but that didn’t stop us.

Mr. Wheeler provides some last minute coaching.

Coach Scott Wheeler led the team to an impressive 3rd place finish, and five individual awards:

Jerry Wang - Outstanding Prosecution Attorney; Kirk Wu - Outstanding Prosecution Attorney; Jacqueline Shang - Outstanding Defense Witness; Jonathon Liu - Outstanding Prosecution Witness; and Caty Szeto - Outstanding Prosecution Witness.

From left to right: Julie Wang, Coach Joanne, Jacqueline Shang, Caty Szeto, Jerry Wang, Jonathon Liu, Coach Scott Wheeler, Justin Yeh, the judge, and Kirk Wu

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Later in the month, our elementary forensics competitors battled at the St. Rita’s Elementary Tournament, where we earned a total of 16 awards. In SPAR debate, Kudos students brought home 4 of the top 6 spots: Emily Zhang – 2nd place; Alvina Zhang – 3rd place; Anjee Feng – 4th place; and Miranda Chen – 6th place.

Pictured: Second from the right – Emily Zhang; third from the right – Alvina Zhang; fourth from the right – Anjee Feng; far left – Miranda Chen

Both of our Duo Interp teams trophied as well, with Eric Mao and Alyssa Huang earning 3rd place, and Jaclyn Yip and Brandon Szeto getting 5th.  

Pictured: Far left – Jaclyn Yip and Brandon Szeto; center – Eric Mao and Alyssa Huang

Jacob Chon, Allen Lin, and Evan Steinhoff all earned trophies in impromptu, winning 4th, 5th, and 6th place honors respectively.

Pictured from left to right: Evan Steinhoff, Allen Lin, and Jacob Chon

Art Xue, Courtney Chan, and Nanette Zhang took 3rd, 5th, and 6th places in Poetry.

Pictured: Courtney Chan (far left), Nanette Zhang (second from left), and Art Xue (fourth from left)

Lastly, Elaine Hong trophied in Storytelling, bringing home 6th place.

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The final tournament of December was the Harker Invitational, a middle school tournament held each year in San Jose that includes the best teams in the state.

Natalie and Sally show off their 1st place trophies in Policy Debate.

Competition was fierce, but, as usual, Kudos was up to the challenge, in both speech and debate events.  We earned 18 total awards, including winning the championship in 5 events, including Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, Original Oratory, Prose, and Extemporaneous Speaking.  It was, needless to say, a very impressive showing, and a clear statement to our opposition that Kudos is the team to beat.

Audrey Lam, Stanley Yu, and Justin Chiang and Angela Chen celebrate championships.

A complete list of our Harker winners:

Jerry Wang – Prose – 1st place

Cicily Deng – Prose – 3rd place

Stanley Yu – Original Oratory – 1st place

Audrey Lam – Extemporaneous – 1st place

Joseph Kiang – Extemporaneous – 2nd place

Kirk Wu – Extemporaneous – 4th place

Melinda Wang – Impromptu – 4th place

Justin Chuang and Angela Chen – Public Forum Debate – 1st place

Natalie Wang and Gyuwon Kang – Policy Debate – 1st place

Jerry Wang and Kirk Wu – Policy Debate – Semifinalist

Joseph Kiang and Melinda Wang – Policy Debate – Semifinalist

Natalie Wang – Policy Debate – Top Speaker

Kirk Wu – Policy Debate – 3rd Speaker

Jerry Wang – Policy Debate – 4th Speaker

Joseph Kiang – Policy Debate – 7th Speaker

Audrey Lam – Lincoln-Douglas Debate – Quarterfinalist

Stanley Yu – Lincoln-Douglas Debate – Octafinalist

Audrey Lam – Lincoln-Douglas Debate – 10th Speaker

Kirk and Jerry are seen here with awards won in Policy Debate and Prose.

November 2012

November featured two middle school SCJFL league tournaments, one for individual events and one for debate.  Kudos brought a small team to the SCJFL Fall Speech Tournament, held at Jefferson Middle School in San Gabriel.  Here, Jessica Lin earned 4th place in a large field of Impromptu Speaking competitors, while Phoebe Wang took 4th in Expository Speaking.

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A few days later, the SCJFL Fall Debate Tournament was held at Ridgecrest Intermediate School in Rancho Palos Verdes.  We knew going in that this would be a battle, as the SCJFL is objectively one of the strongest middle school debate leagues in the country.  Our debaters acquitted themselves admirably, and emerged with numerous awards.

Victor Luo (left) and Kylin Feng display trophies won in Public Forum Debate

In Public Forum Debate, Jerry Wang and Kirk Wu earned 3rd place, while Kylin http://voicecouncil.com/?tags=/buy-cialis-generic.php Feng and Victor Luo brought home 7th.  We also achieved 3 of the top 4 spots in Lincoln-Douglas debate, when Stanley Yu took the championship, Victor Qin won 2nd, and Jonathon Liu accomplished 4th.

From left to right: Jonathon Liu, Stanley Lu, and Victor Qin bring glory unto themselves and their school in Lincoln Douglas debate.

September and October 2012:

No tournaments were scheduled for September, but http://www.trevorturnbull.com October brought our first tournament of the new school year, a high school invitational held at Cal State Fullerton, where we competed only in debate events. 8 of the top 16 finishes in Policy Debate belonged to Kudos competitors, and one of our Public Forum teams also broke to the top 16. This was a great warmup tournament for us, especially considering that this was the first tournament in which Kudos competed in Policy Debate.

CS Fullerton Winners List:

Jerry Wang and Kirk Wu – 3rd place, Novice Policy

Joseph Kiang and Melinda Wang – Octafinalists, Novice Policy

George Hou and Philip Chen – Octafinalists, Novice Policy

Alex Zhao and Cicily Deng –  Octafinalists, Novice Public Forum

Joseph Kiang – 9th speaker, Novice Policy

Summer 2012:

Summers are, of course, the off-season for competitive speech and http://www.varley.net/online/ debate. No tournaments are hosted in July and August. But that doesn’t mean that we just sat around twiddling our thumbs! The Kudos summer day program proved a great success, providing academic instruction in English, math, and science, and supplementing this curriculum with specialized instruction in forensics and even magic! In addition to our day-long summer programs, Kudos also offered several camps to get our competitors prepared early for the 2012-2013 in both individual and debate events.

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.