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.