Six Months, 115 Championships, One ModernBrain Family

Website Updates

We've made some helpful adjustments in the last few months, including:

• Starting Zoom seminars every Saturday at 2 PM PST for our general classes and 3 PM PST for our competition classes to help newcomers learn what the buzz is about.
• Adding a Why ModernBrain? page based on your feedback.
• Putting our Spring 2022 classes up. We'll keep adding more classes based on your written interest.
• Refreshing our social media pages (you can see the links at the bottom of this page). Expect some quality content soon!

Tournament Updates

We were the overwhelming winners of the Professional Speech and Debate Association's seasonal championship.

• Noah was the CHAMPION of Elementary Impromptu and 3rd Place in Elementary Debate.
• Luna and Grace (1st and 2nd) won Junior Interpretation.
• Grace, Luna, and Oliver (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) won Junior Public Address.
• Justin, Luna, and Grace (2nd, 3rd, and 4th) made finals in Junior Impromptu.
• Luna, Garfield, and Justin (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) won Junior Debate. Oliver and William made semifinals.
•  Nathan, Rebecca, and Anna (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) won High School Debate.
• Casey was the CHAMPION of High School Interpretation, High School Public Address, and High School Impromptu.
• Two of ModernBrain's squads placed in the top four overall teams for season-long team sweepstakes (the top K-12 teams in attendance).
• Luna and Grace were the top two K-12 competitors for season-long individual sweepstakes.

We earned more championships than any other team at the SCJFL's second quarter competitions.

• CHAMPION, POI: Grace
• CHAMPION, Speech to Entertain: Sophia
• CHAMPION, Impromptu: Luna
  
• CHAMPION, Novice SPAR: Sarah
• RUNNER-UP, Public Forum Speaker: Eric
• 3rd Place, Public Forum Speaker: Leon
• 4th Place, SPAR: Meera
• 4th Place, Impromptu: Meera
• 4th Place, Public Forum: Leon and Rufan
• 5th Place, Dramatic Interp: Grace
• 7th Place, Public Forum Speaker: Ethan
• 8th Place, Public Forum Speaker: Rufan
• 8th Place, SPAR: Luna
• 10th Place, Novice SPAR: Olivia

We won bids and championships throughout December.

• We took La Costa Canyon by storm.
  
  • Ashley was the CHAMPION, Krishnni was 3rd, and Shirley made finals in POI. Krishnni and Ashley got a TOC bid; Ashley got a NIETOC bid. 
  • Matthew and Jesse made finals of Policy Debate and earned their second bid to the TOC. Matthew was the 3rd Place speaker.
  • Ashley made the top 14 of Oratory, earning a NIETOC and TOC bid. 
  • Dea made finals of Congress.
  • Audrey made the semifinals of Declamation.
  • Meera, Izzie, and Navya made the semifinals of Impromptu.
• We were the only academy to earn a championship at the highly competitive MASQ tournament.
  • Swadesh was the Oratory CHAMPION, which means he automatically qualifies to NIETOC. Emily made quarterfinals (earning a NIETOC bid!).
  • Shirley made semifinals of Informative (earning a NIETOC bid!). 
• Our ninth graders reached elimination rounds at national debate tournaments.
  • Annabelle was an Octofinalist in Lincoln Douglas at Isidore Newman.
  • Joseph made Doubles (the top 20) in Lincoln-Douglas at College Prep. 
• Our middle school debaters swept the La Reina competition.
  • Jolynn was the middle school Lincoln-Douglas CHAMPION.
  • Iva and Audrey were the Policy CHAMPIONS. Iva was the TOP SPEAKER; Audrey was 2nd Place.
• Ziqi was the RUNNER-UP in Oratory at the BASIS International and Bilingual Schools China Southern tournament.
  

Our students won 10 gold awards at the December Scholars of Speech tournament.

• Debate GOLD Awards: Bruce and Cynthia (Parliamentary), Pyron Tan/Peter Wang/Jerry Zhou (Elementary SPAR), William Shu/James Pan (Middle School SPAR), and Celine Chang (Congress).
• Speech GOLD Awards: Yuqiao (Elementary Impromptu), Gloria (Elementary Platform), Gloria (Elementary Interp), Celine (HS Extemp).
• The full results are here.
  

Finally, our Valley International Prep students (co-coached by Ms. Lexi Tippings) had a great showing at the Tri-County Forensics League competition.

• CHAMPIONS, DUO: Ava and Mateo
• CHAMPION, POI: Isabella
• CHAMPION, OI: Wallis
• CHAMPION, Oratory: Dev
• RUNNER-UP, Impromptu: River
• 3rd Place, Oratory: Claudia
• 3rd Place, OI: Quinn
• 3rd Place, Informative: Sophia
• 4th Place, SPAR: River
• 4th Place, Oratory: Sidney
• 5th Place, Oratory: Treya
• 6th Place, Oratory: Kalia

Our 2021-2022 season began in late July. We've earned 115 first place championships and hundreds of additional awards since then. Win or lose, compete or not, we're inestimably proud of every member of the ModernBrain family for conquering their fear of public speaking and embracing the joy of performing.