A Message from the Coach

Dear MVSD Parents, Students, Coaches, Advisors, and Captains,

Thank you to those who came out for our Parent Info Night! It’s great to see how involved our community is toward shaping the futures of our children. You, as parents, are a vital part of the MVSD team and collectively, our efforts will make this year a strong competitive season for Monta Vista.

For those of you who have recently joined the MV Speech family, allow me to introduce you to the Speech Newsletter. Through this newsletter we seek to:

Keep you informed of team activities
Seek your participation and support for tournaments
Celebrate our team’s successes

Team Membership:

Member registration is now finished, and I am happy to announce we are currently at 110 students in various steps of the registration process. These membership numbers highlight the huge opportunity we have to equip these students with the public speaking skills they will use later in life. A huge thank you to our captain team for a seamless registration process, as well as to our parents for your generous donations to support this program.

Growing our Assistant Coach Roster:

We’re pleased to announce that Nancy Huang has been hired as our fifth assistant coach for the Speech team. Having done speech for 7 years and a former MV Speech student, Nancy competed in Expository and Original Oratory. Most notably, she placed in the top 7 Original Oratory speakers at the SCU Dempsey-Cronin Invitational (2016) and placed in the top 14 of Expository speakers at the MLK Logan and Jack Howe invitationals (2018). She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley. Nancy is working as a software engineer for a tech firm in the Bay Area. We’re excited to welcome Nancy back as part of the team!

Success of our Speech Summer Camp:

This past July and August, we had about 13 students attend our in-house speech summer camp hosted by MV Speech Boosters, assistant coaches, captains and varsity volunteers. It was our first time to host this summer camp in-person. In one week, students created and presented a mini-speech in front of our assistant coaches and peers. A huge thank you to all parties involved for making the summer camp a huge success!

As students return to Monta Vista via in-person learning, we would like to emphasize MV Speech is committed to our students’ health and safety as our top priority.

Best,

Gavin Wong & Rajeswari (Raji) Mahalingam,
Micheal Wang, Rama Venkataraman,
Lalitha Krishnan

Head Speech Coach MV Speech Boosters Board

Beginning of the Year in Review

As the speech season officially begins, continue reading our newsletters to stay updated on the transition back into in-person events and tournaments!

Summer Camp:

During our week-long summer camp, captains, coaches, and volunteers all contributed to creating a memorable experience for the students. After choosing their Speech branch, students played Speech games, received feedback from coaches, and prepared and delivered a section of their Speech.

Summer camp captains and students got together after learning in their branches.

First Meeting Rotations & Speech-A-Thon:

We held our first Speech meeting surrounded by both new and familiar faces. Captains led “rotations”, where branch captains rotated through rooms to introduce novice members to the various Speech branches. Once they picked their branches, novices began to prepare for the CFL Novice Tournament. On Oct 16, Captains and novice students met up at Linda Vista Park for our Novice Speechathon, where the team hung out, ate lunch, and worked on their Speeches.

Novices learn basics of public speaking through presentations, videos, and activities.

Novices, Captains, and Coaches enjoy their picnic in the outdoors at Speech-A-Thon

Parent Info Night & Judging + ASU Info Night

Thank you to all parents who attended Parent Info Night to get an update on our team and Parent Judging Night to watch captains from various events demonstrate their speeches. We hope these skills will be helpful for judging at future tournaments. Parents also received information on the Arizona State University Invitational this January where students will travel, speak, and have a blast!

Parents learn basic criteria on judging competitors at tournaments.

Tournaments:

Monta Vista proudly presents our record at State and National Tournaments this last July; six members are among the top ten in California. Varsity Speechers attended their first in-person tournament, Stephen Stewart Invitational, on October 2nd. Novice members also went to their first tournament on October 30 at Leland High School. In both of these tournaments, Monta Vista started the season with a bang. As our team continues to grow stronger, it is evident that these successes are only the tip of the iceberg!

Competitors who broke to final rounds at Stephen Stewart await their rankings.

Tournament Preparation:

In Progress:

CFL League 1 (Nov 12th)
SCU Fall (Nov 19th - Nov 20)
CFL League 2 (Dec 4)
ASU (Jan 6 - Jan 8)

Upcoming Events (Students):

Branch Jeopardy (Today)
Winter Holiday Party (Dec 23)

Upcoming Events (Parents):

Parent Coffee 1 (Nov 22, 2022 6:30pm at Student Union Union, MV High School)
Parent Judging Night 2 (Jan 31th, 2022 6:30pm at Student Union, MV High School)

We are thrilled to recognize our team's accomplishments over the summer and at our first two tournaments of the season.

State and National Rankings

Original Oratory
Deetshana Parthipan (13th in CA)
Samhita Kashyap (32nd in CA)
Anvitha Mattapalli (36th in CA)

Impromptu
Jiya Singh (4th in CA, 28th in USA)
Tvisha Gupta (5th in CA, 29th in USA)
Lavi Sundar (6th in CA, 30th in USA)
Saanvi Mantripragada (17th in CA, 76th in USA)
Abirami V. Katiresan (36th in CA)
Alex Zhang (40th in CA)

Dramatic Interpretation
Jia Desai (20th in CA)
Divya Venkataraman (25th in CA)
Anya Goyal (25th in CA)
Meggie Chen (28th in CA)
Sarah Liu (32nd in CA)

Humorous Interpretation
Shreyassriram Garimella (4th in CA, 36th in USA)
Michelle Zheng (25th in CA)
Tanish Mendki (28th in CA)
Jiya Singh (35th in CA)
Abha Dash (38th in CA)
Ameya Joshi (44th in CA)
Ajit Chamraj (45th in CA)

Extemporaneous
Alex Zhang (10th in CA)
Atmaja Patil (37th in CA)

Expository
Hiranya Sundar (10th in CA)

Stephen Stewart Invitational

Meggie Chen (4th Place, DI Finalist)
April Wang (7th Place, HI Finalist)
Tvisha Gupta (10th Place, IMP Finalist)
Smriti Rangarajan (15th Place, OO Finalist)
Jiya Singh (16th Place, IMP Finalist)
Ximeng Liu (25th Place, IMP Finalist)

CFL Novice

Shannon Yu (1st Place, HI Champion & 2nd Place, IMP Finalist)
Jivika Guljrani (1st Place, OO Champion)
Aaryan Sharma (3rd Place, HI Finalist)
Shannon Yu (3rd Place, OO Finalist)
Mahika Pandit (4th Place, HI Finalist)
Yixuan Li (4th Place, DI Finalist)
Elizabeth Liu (5th Place, DI Finalist)
Reema Karvir (5th Place, IMP Finalist)
Anika Ramachandran (6th Place, HI Finalist)
Tanisha Sood (7th Place, OO Finalist)
Rishabh Goel (EXT Semifinalist)
Suravi Sunil (EXT Semifinalist)
Niveda Hari (IMP Semifinalist)
Horton Zhu (IMP Semifinalist)
Ria Sethi (IMP Semifinalist)
Shivansh Kelkar (IMP Semifinalist)
Chunming Zhang (OO Semifinalist)
Kush Mathur (OO Semifinalist)
Charmaine Chua (OO Semifinalist)

Captains at an Escape Room in July for Captain Retreat!

Shop Amazon Smile and Support MV Speech!

Looking for a way to support Monta Vista Speech while shopping? Shop AmazonSmile at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/82-2152635, and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to Monta Vista High School Speech Boosters Inc.