January 2025 - ModernBrain Results

Peninsula in Palos Verdes:

Despite sending a majority of middle schoolers to this high school national Tournament of Champions qualifying tournament, we continued our streak of being the most successful afterschool enrichment academy in the country. We were the #1 overall team at this contest out of 95 teams!

• Informative: 1st - Kathleen Hong (NIETOC + TOC bid), 6th - Izzie Tran (TOC bid), Semifinalist - Maanya Kaur
• POI: 2nd - Natalie Hong (TOC bid), 6th - Betty Chen (Troy)
• Extemp: 3rd - Claire Liu (TOC bid)
• Oratory: 4th - Sofia Patel (middle schooler; NIETOC + TOC bid), 5th - Luna Bouhairi (NIETOC + TOC bid), 6th - Emily Wang (NIETOC + TOC bid)
• Impromptu: 6th - Sissi Wang (middle schooler), Semifinalists - Luna Bouhairi, Kelly Liu, Melody Mo (Harvard-Westlake, middle schooler)
• Novice Policy: 1st - Daniel Lu/Gloria He, Quarterfinalists - Evan Choe/Jerry Zhang, Bella Tan/Melody Wu; 1st Speaker - Daniel Lu, 3rd Speaker - Bella Tan, 4th Speaker - Melody Wu (all middle schoolers)\
• Novice LD: 2nd - Kamille Le, Semifinalist - Rena Zhuang, Quarterfinalists - Benjamin Haselhuhn, Grace Chen; 2nd Speaker - Kamille Le, 4th Speaker - Rena Zhuang (middle schoolers)
• Novice PF: 1st - Elizabeth Lu/Elsa Zhou; 1st Speaker - Elizabeth Lu, 2nd Speaker - Elsa Zhou (middle schoolers)
• Open Policy: Octofinalists - Charlie Pan/Stella Pellier (middle schoolers)

Ben Franklin Invitational - Mock Trial:

We sent two Californian teams out to the BFI, which hosted over 60 schools from Pennsylvania. We were the only out-of-state contestants in the field. We learned a different set of rules and a different case in a month.

Every one of our students, including eighth graders, earned honors at this contest.

• 2nd Place (out of 60+): Christiana Garcia (also a top attorney), Anya Luo (also a top witness), Jiachen Qiu, Vivian Mei, Jason Kuo, Lily Kizirian, Isabella Lin, Angelia Li, Johnny Shiell, Kayla Hua
• 4th Place (out of 60+): Dana Elquza (also a top attorney), Grace Li, Eric Zhu, Tobin Hill, Krystal Deng, Elizabeth Lu, Yichen Liu, Arin Pai, Allen Chen, Aryaan Hussain, Joy Long

National Online Forensics League - January:

ModernBrain took 1st in high school sweepstakes and 3rd in elementary school sweepstakes at the live contest.

• Elementary SPAR: Gold - Grant Chien, Silver - Helen Yang
• Elementary Platform: Silver - Emma Tran
• Middle Extemp: Silver - Jerry Zhang
• Middle Impromptu: Bronze - Evan Liu
• High HI: Gold - Kelly Liu
• High SPAR: Bronze - Harjashan Singh Sahota, Kien Toussaint
• High Impromptu: Bronze - Kelly Liu, Kien Toussaint

Then, we succeeded at the asynchronous contest:

• Elementary Platform: Gold - Grant Chien
• Elementary Congress: Silver - George Feng, Bronze - Nora Sun
• Middle Impromptu: Gold - Anny Du, Silver - Tianni Gong
• Middle Congress: Gold - Leah Feigenbaum, Bronze - Jacob Yuan
• Middle Declamation: Bronze - Sissi Wang
• High Impromptu: Bronze - Raymond Wong, Kien Toussaint, Jiayou Liu (middle schooler)
• High Informative: Bronze - Jiayou Liu (middle schooler)

Private Students:

Congrats to Iris Ye (Peninsula), who took 2nd in Dramatic and POI at Arizona State University, earning NIETOC and TOC bids in both categories!

All mentees represented their home schools at James Logan. Congratulations to them and their school coaches!

• Impromptu: 3rd out of 117 - Meera Kalluraya (Archbishop Mitty)
• Informative: 5th out of 107 - Kathleen Hong (Troy; NIETOC + TOC bids), Semifinalists - Meera Kalluraya (Archbishop Mitty; NIETOC bid), Seoyun Chong (Archbishop Mitty; NIETOC bid)
• POI: 4th out of 48 - Natalie Hong (Sunny Hills; NIETOC + TOC bids), Semifinalist - Pranya Napgal (Evergreen Valley)

Our students, representing their home teams, also excelled at the Orange County Forensics League Spring contest:

• Congress: 1st - Annie Liu (University), 3rd - Zixiang Zheng (University)
• POI: 1st - Natalie Hong (Sunny Hills)
• Extemp: 1st - Annie Jiang (University)

More students representing their home teams succeeded at the Coast Forensics League Spring contest:

• POI: 1st - Pranya Nagpal (Evergreen Valley, TOC Bid)
• Informative: 11th - Yuna Chong (Archbishop Mitty)