ModernBrain Wins—Again and Again (2025 Season-In-Review)

We could just list the wins. The gold medals. The back-to-back championships. The clean sweeps. But that wouldn’t explain why ModernBrain stands out in a field of truly talented competitors.

Let’s start with the facts.

At the 2025 California Middle School State Championship, ModernBrain was crowned back-to-back State Champions—ranked #1 out of over 50 of the most competitive school teams and academies in California. We earned as many top-two finishes as the second and third place programs combined.

Here’s how our students placed:

• Extemp: 1st – Jiayou Liu

• Informative: 1st – Sofia Patel

• Poetry: 1st – Shivani Bansal

• Policy Debate: 1st – Bella Tan & Madeline Jun; 2nd – Ethan Yan & Mia Tian; 3rd – Johnny Wald & Sarah Wald; 4th – Benjie Wald & Oliver Cha

• Congress: 1st – Brian Tan; 9th – Derek Song; Semis – Celina Wang, Leah Feigenbaum, Nish Wadhwa

• Public Forum: 2nd – Elizabeth Lu & Elsa Zhou; Doubles – Kylie Zhang & Audrey Ballon, Ivan Zhang & Juliette Scott, Ryan Kong & Alexa Kim

• Oratory: 2nd – Sofia Patel; 5th – Irene Cho; Semis – Yuqiao Shao, Sofia Patel, Rachel Huang, Irene Cho; Quarters – Nathan Kung, Pranamya Adhitham

• Prose: 2nd – Luna Hu; 4th – Tianni Gong

• Storytelling: 2nd – Ramsey Ma

• Impromptu: 3rd – Yuqiao Shao; 4th – Oliver Dai; 5th – Melody Mo; 7th – Sissi Wang; Semis – Maribelle Ganelis, Pranamya Adhitham, Tianni Gong; Quarters – Jiayou Liu, Evan Liu, Camryn Mai

• Dramatic Interpretation: 5th – Camryn Mai

• Declamation: Semis – Sissi Wang, Dipanjali Suresh

• LD Debate: Triples – Maximus Wang

At the 2025 Middle School Tournament of Champions, ModernBrain competitors once again took home national titles across speech and debate events:

• Impromptu: 1st – Avelyn Jing (Harker); 3rd – Siri Chundru (Harker)

• Oratory: 1st – Siri Chundru (Harker)

• Extemp: 1st – Avelyn Jing (Harker)

• LD Debate: 1st – Jonah Kim (Vanguard); Octos – Jason Rong; Doubles – Rena Zhuang, Alex Huang

• LD Speakers: 2nd – Jonah Kim; 3rd – Isa Dash

• Policy Debate: Semis – Charlie Pan & Stella Pellier; Quarters – Melody Wu & Evan Choe, William Lin & Nesara Shetty; Octos – three more teams

• Policy Speakers: 1st – William Lin; 2nd – Nesara Shetty; 5th – Charlie Pan; 7th – Stella Pellier

• Congress: Semis – Carrie Rao

To see success across this many formats—speech, debate, Congress—is a reflection of careful coaching, comprehensive curriculum, and committed students.

At the 2025 Empire Spring League mock trial championship, we are ranked 1st place out of 70+ teams going into elimination rounds.

Mira Jiang, Christiana Garcia, Ethan Bai, and Jaden Hong (eighth grader!) all received PERFECT ranks as attorneys and witnesse.

At the 2025 NIETOC (National Individual Events Tournament of Champions), we won a school sweepstakes award for Act II schools, which is the most sweepstakes points any academy has ever received at the most competitive speech contest in America. In fact, no other academy has received ANY sweepstakes award at NIETOC since 2018. We've won multiple.

• Informative: 2nd - Kathleen Hong, Quarterfinals - Meera Kalluraya (Mitty)
• Impromptu: 8th - Izzie Tran, Quarterfinals - Kelly Liu
• Expository: Quarterfinals - Izzie Tran
• Prose: Quarterfinals - Vicky Yang
• POI: Quarterfinals - Natalie Hong, Pranya Nagpal (Evergreen)
• Oratory: Octofinals - Luna Bouhairi

2024 Was No Different

🏆 CHSSA State Championship (April 2024):
ModernBrain students earned more State Championships than the rest of the top five programs combined.

• 1st in Public Forum, Impromptu, Extemp, Informative, Declamation, Poetry, POI, and Prose

• 2nd in Oratory and SPAR

• Breaks and finals appearances across LD, Congress, and HI

🏆 MS Tournament of Champions (May 2024):

• Policy Debate: 1st – Yian & Pan; 2nd – Li & Jiang; 3rd – Chen & Chill; speaker awards across the board

• LD Debate: 2nd – Eric Xing; Breaks – Aarini Chadha, Jonah Kim

• Congress: 4th – Jason Rong; 5th – Zixiang Zheng; Semis – Jacob Yuan (5th grade!)

• Speech Events:

  • 1st in Declamation (Anny Du), Impromptu (Daniel Lu), Extemp (Avelyn Jing)

  • 2nd in LD, Oratory, Informative

  • 3rd in Dramatic, Declamation, Informative

Each tournament told the same story: our students are prepared, confident, and trained to win in a variety of formats against the country’s best.

We Know How Competitive This Activity Is. That’s Exactly Why Our Approach Matters.

There are incredible students at every academy. Every year, we face some of the most hardworking, intelligent competitors in the country. And yet, ModernBrain teams consistently rise to the top.

What makes the difference? We focus on building complete communicators—not just event-specific performers. We analyze ballots and trends. We teach students how to adapt, how to frame ideas persuasively, and how to deliver with clarity under pressure.

Every round is a learning opportunity. Every coaching session is intentional. And every result is earned.

To our students: well done. To our community: we’re just getting started.