6th-8th Grd

Velásquez Academy has most clearly established itself as a state and national power at the Middle School level. Our accomplishments are not only sterling, they nearly defy belief when taking into account how tiny our core squad of competitors is! Pound for pound (or speaker for speaker, if you will) we carry a very dense core of talent, in that every major competitor is a multi-skilled, serial champion.

2020-21 School Year

These were 70 of our more than 90 First Place performances awarded in 2020-21!!

2020-21 8th Grader Michelle Fan only competed two years, yet amassed one of the greatest speaker point totals in national history. She was the 2021 National Champion in Extemp, a five-time National Finalist, placed First in both Informative AND Impromptu at the 2021 Middle School Tournament of Champions. CA Accolades: 2021 State Champ in Extemp, Original Oratory and Informative; Top Overall speaker at the CHSSA State Championship.

Six of the Top Seven 2015 middle school speakers in California were from our squad, and ALL SEVEN of our main competitors made it into the national Top 25 for 2015, an unprecedented feat, with the next-nearest school only placing four competitors!

Despite having only existed for a brief time and having no grounds to expect to contend with programs with multiple, experienced coaches and far more time and money than we, our debut and follow-up year at Nationals yielded astonishing results: EVERY single team member “broke” through to the elimination rounds (5 out of 5 in ’14, 6 out of 6 in ’15) with three Quarter-Finalists (Original Oratory, Declamation, Duo) & one Semi-Finalist (Congressional Debate) in 2014 and four Quarter-Finalists (Storytelling, Original Oratory, two in Declamation), five Semi-Finalists (Duo, Declamation, Original Oratory) & three Finalists (Prose, two in Congressional Debate), including 7th in Original Oratory (Catherine Tanidjaja), 4th in Prose Interpretation (Rachel Kho) and the National Champion in Congressional Debate (Jack Xiao) in 2015.

VA advanced all five students at its first MS Nationals (2014)! Left to right: Rachel Kho (22nd in Duo), Catherine Tanidjaja (13th in Original Oratory, 22nd in Duo), Prof. Velasquez holding Christian Sim’s Semi-Finalist plaque (20th in Congress), Markus McCormack (16th in Declamation)

7th Grader Christian Sim was our first and only Semi-Finalist at our first Nationals in 2014, winding up in 20th Place in Congressional Debate

IMG_0295 - Version 2 — Left to right: Prof. Velásquez, Catherine Tanidjaja (7th Oratory, 8th Duo, 9th Declamation, Top 24 in Storytelling), Jason Lee (10th Declamation), Jack Xiao (National Champion in Congressional Debate), Christian Sim (8th in Congressional Debate), Rachel Kho (4th in Prose, 8th in Duo, Top 24 in Declamation), Dorothy Vassantachart (Top 24 in Original Oratory & Declamation)

In addition, our two-year record at the CA Championship Tournament is spectacular :

MS State 2014! Left to right: C. Sim (2nd, Congress), D. Vassantachart (1st, Impromptu, 2nd, Declamation), Prof V, C. Tanidjaja (2nd, Original Oratory), R. Kho (2nd, Dramatic Interpretation)

2014 State Tournament: Impromptu Speaking (State Champion, 11th, 12th), Congressional Debate (2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th), Declamation (2nd, 8th, 9th), Original Oratory (2nd), Dramatic Interpretation (2nd), Duo Interpretation (5th)

2014 California Middle School Speech & Debate State Championship (full results link)

2015 State Results! 1st in CA in Congress & Declamation! 2nd in Drama & Poetry! 3rd in Duo! 4th in Extemp, Declamation & Congress!

2015 State Tournament: Congressional Debate (State Champion, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th), Declamation (State Champion, 4th, 6th, 10th), Dramatic Interpretation (2nd, 6th), Poetry Interpretation (2nd), Duo Interpretation (3rd), Extemporaneous Speaking (4th), Original Oratory (5th, 9th), Impromptu Speaking (7th, 10th)

2015 California Middle School Speech & Debate State Championship (full results link)