California Championship Monroe Speech Hall of Fame

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Note: in 2003, Monroe won the 2nd place State Sweepstakes award in the Medium Schools Division. In 2011, CHSSA elimnated the entry-size divisions. As of States 2012, recognition goes to the top 20 schools, regardless of entry size.  In 2012, we won the 17th place State Sweeps award, out of 147 schools; in 2013, we rose to 13th place out of 156 schools; and in 2015 we captured the 11th place sweepstakes award out of 160 schools statewide! 

 

Expository

1. 1st Place, 1998 Nassira Nicola, freshman (The Harp)

2. 1st Place, 2000 David Yaroslavsky, sr (The Lies Across America: Myths of American History)

3. 2nd Place, 2011 Tannaz Noormohammadi, sr (Off With Her Head!: Queens)—also 1st at Berkeley!

4. 4th Place, 2007 Stephanie Perez, sr (Kentucky Fried Speech: The Chicken)

5. 5th Place, 2015 William Streb, sr (No Guts, No Glory: Human Digestion)

6. 6th Place, 2005 Morgan Walsh, sr (Wanted: Dead, Not Alive: the life of cadavers)

7. 7th Place, 2005 Mane Sardaryan, sr (For Crying Out Loud: Tears)

8. 8th Place, 2008 Arpine Sardaryan, sr (At Your Service: The American Diner)

9. 9th Place, 2011 Genine Cumba, soph (Got Speech?: Milk)

10. 11th Place, 2006 Stephanie Perez, jr (Under the Big Top: The Circus)

11. 12th place, 2014 William Streb, jr (“In Living Color”)—also 1st at Berkeley!

12. 15th Place, 2007 Luis Villanueva, soph (Truth, Justice, and the American Way: Superheroes)

13. 15th Place, 2004 Mane Sardaryan, sr (The Mafia)

14. 15th Place, 2002 Mike Hernandez, sr (Lobotomy)

15. 16th Place, 2004 Quingan Zhou, soph (Dust)

16. 17th Place, 2009 Talisa Tan, sr (The Most “Apeeling” Fruit: The Banana)

 

Original Advocacy

1. 3rd Place, 2010 Lucy Unanyan, sr (Cheering for Your Life—dangers of cheerleading)

2. 3rd Place, 2003 Alex Danielyan, sr (Loose Nukes—unsecured fissile nuclear material in the world)

3. 4th Place, 2013 Genine Cumba, sr (It’s About Time—reform Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

4. 4th Place, 2007 Anna Aroutiounian, sr (It’s Enough to Make You Sick—health care)

5. 5th Place, 2007 Edward Danielyan, sr (A Matter of Life and Debt—credit cards)

6. 5th Place, 2006 David Sforza, sr (McNickeled and McDimed—loss of working class wages & dignity)

7. 7th Place, 2014 Aminata Diallo, jr (Asking For It—campus rape)

8. 8th Place, 2005 David Sforza, jr (Walmart—discriminatory & abusive treatment of workers, esp female)

9. 9th Place, 2015 Amy Diallo, sr (To Protect and Serve: police culture and implicit racial bias)

10. 10th Place, 2013 Amy Diallo, soph (Text M for Murder—Tantalum and need for conflict-free cell phones)

11. 10th Place, 2011 Rossana Estrada, sr (Democracy Inc—campaign finance/Citizens United decision)

12. 11th Place, 2008 Johannah Huynh, jr (Eat at Your Own Risk—food safety)

13. 12th Place, 2004 Brent Hamashita, sr (Click, Click, Boom—teen suicide)

14. 13th Place, 2015 John Camara, sr (REVIVE our Democracy: Voter Apathy)

 

Dramatic Interpretation

1. 1st Place, 2003 Michecia Jones, sr (Yellowman, play by Dael Orlandersmith)—also 1st at Berkeley!

2. 3rd Place, 2015 Jazmyn Simmons, sr (For Colored Girls, choreopoem/play by Ntozake Shange)

3. 3rd Place, 2005 Wanda Pathomrit, sr (Little Saigon, prose poem by David St. John)

4. 5th Place. 2010 Sarah Martellaro, sr (Incendiary, novel by Chris Cleave)

5. 7th Place, 2003 Ashley Ford, jr (Monster, play by Dael Orlandersmith)

6. 8th Place, 2004 Ashley Ford, sr (The Gimmick, play by Dael Orlandersmith)

7. 9th Place, 2003 Wanda Pathomrit, soph (First They Killed My Father, Cambodian novel by Loung Ung)

8. 11th Place 2007 Melodie Kruspodin, sr (Rose, play by Martin Sherman)

9. 11th Place, 2005 Nathaniel Nalam, sr (I Am My Own Wife, play by Doug Wright)

10. 13th Place, 2011 Angelina Finau, soph (King Hedley II, play by August Wilson)

11. 16th Place, 2012 Angelina Finau, jr (Rage to Survive: the Etta James Story—biography)

12. 16th Place, 2004 Justine DePeralta, soph (Defying Gravity, play by Jane Anderson)

13. 18th Place, 2002 Michecia Jones, soph (short story about a Southern sharecropper, told by his daughter)

 

Thematic Interpretation

1. 1st Place, 2007 Cameron Hovsepian, sr (Why I Sing the Blues)

2. 13th Place, 2009 Sarah Martellaro, jr (Far From Home)

 

Humorous Interpretation

1. 3rd Place, 2015 Xochitl Hernandez, jr (The LA LA Awards, by Latins Anonymous) —also 5th at Berkeley!

2. 13th Place, 2006 Vanessa Cerritos, sr (Some People, play by Danny Hoch—a Puerto Rican girl w/ attitude)

3. 16th Place, 2013 Tony Santacruz, jr (Sleepwalk with Me, memoir by comedian Mike Birbiglia)

 

Duo Interpretation

1. 5th Place, 2005 David Reichbach, sr/Vanessa Cerritos, jr (Into The Woods, musical by Steph. Sondheim)

 

Original Prose & Poetry

1. 1st Place, 2012 Cheikh Athj, sr (Puppet—black college student’s experience w/ the N word and racism)

2. 1st Place, 2008 Samanta Cubias, sr (The Baptism of Omar—Latino family celebration)

3. 1st Place, 2006 Cameron Hovsepian, jr (BackDoor Blues—“autobiography” from an old bluesman)

4. 6th Place, 2004 Nathaniel Nalam, jr (The Fruit on the Family Tree—coming out in a Filipino family)

5. 7th Place, 2014 Luke Dorsey, jr (“Educated”)—the trials and tribulations of high school

6. 11th Place 2007 Nidia Bautista, jr (Secret Lives—celebrities’ lives from the perspective of a Latino maid)

7. 12th Place, 2013 Luke Dorsey, soph (Family Vacation—spoof of vactioning with an outdoorsman dad)

8. 13th Place, 2008 Nidia Bautista, sr (Cielito Lindo—Latino Political Satire)

9. 14th Place, 2011 Cheikh Athj, jr (Bearing Witness—radicalized Muslim on 9/11)

10. 14th Place, 2003 Nathaniel Nalam, soph (Meet My Mother—just what it sounds like!)

11. 15th Place, 2009 Ian Suri, sr (Born Confused—on being both Jewish and Siekh)

 

Oratorical Interpretation

1. 1st Place, 2013 Rachel Dinh, sr (Erin Runnion Victim Impact Statement)

2. 2nd Place, 2004 J’me Forrest, sr (MLK—1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott speech)

3. 3rd Place, 2003 J’me Forrest, jr (Gerry Spence’s 1979 closing argument in Silkwood v Kerr-Mcgee)

4. 4th Place, 2012 Ladijah Corder, jr. (Zainab Salbi’s Women, Wartime, and the Dream of Peace)

5. 7th Place, 2004 Vanessa Hooker, jr (1st Calif. Female Atty, Clara Shortridge Foltz 1890 closing arg.)

6. 9th Place, 2015 Dalia Dichter, soph (Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Lecture)

7. 10th place, 2006 Vanessa Hooker, soph (1838 anti-slavery speech by abolitionist Angelina Grimke)

8. 10th Place, 1999 Annie Vineyard, sr (writer Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize acceptance speech)

9. 14th Place, 2002 Nathaniel Nalam, freshman (Tianamen Square student protester Shen Tong 1989 speech)

10. 18th Place, 2013 Manny Jacob, sr (Jane Lynch’s 2012 Smith Commencement Speech)

11. 18th Place, 2004 Jason Morales, sr (playwright Tony Kushner 2002 commencement speech at Vassar)

 

Original Oratory

1. 1st Place, 2002 Alex Aguila, jr (Affluenza—our culture’s obsession with material gain)

2. 6th Place, 2005 Sophie Etemadi, jr (Dumb and Dumberer—our declining national intelligence)

3. 7th Place, 2009 Johannah Huynh, sr (The Cruelest Historian: Your Reputation Online)

4. 12th Place, 2006 Sophie Etemadi, sr (Bah, Humbug!—The Pursuit of Happiness)

 

Foreign Extemporaneous

1. 7th pl,   2001  Nassira Nicola, sr

2. 11th pl, 2008 Mike Himes, jr

3. 17th pl, 2006 Azziz Hussaini, sr

 

National Extemporaneous

1. 13th pl, 2007 Mike Himes, soph

2. 16th pl, 2013 Dani Dichter, sr

 

Congress

1. 10th place, 2000 Nassira Nicola, jr

2. 17th place, 2012 Dani Dichter, jr

3. 18th place, 2008 Armen Hazarian, jr

 

THAT’S 83 STATE TITLES, INCLUDING 9 CHAMPIONSHIPS!

 

Interesting Monroe Team Fun Facts:

44 of these titles went to seniors, 25 to juniors, 13 to sophomores, 2 to freshmen

 

Only one speaker has ranked in each of his four years at Monroe: Nathaniel Nalam

 

Just one Monroe speaker has won two championships: Cameron Hovsepian (OPP in 2006, and TI in 2007)

 

3 Monroe speakers have won 1st at Berkeley: Michecia Jones in DI, who then went on to win the 2003 DI State Championship that year, and Tannaz Noormohammadi in Expos, who then went on to win 2nd at States that year, missing the 2011 championship title by only ONE point, and William Streb, who went on to rank 12th at States that year (would have ranked higher, but experienced an easel malfunction in the sf round, costing him a time violation!)

 

1 Monroe speaker has ranked 3 times in the same event: Amy Diallo, OA: 9th in 015, 7th in 014, 10th  in 013

 

14 Monroe speakers have ranked twice in the same event:

1. Cheikh Atjh, OPP 14th place 2011; 2012 State Champion!

2. Michecia Jones, DI: 18th place 2002; 2003 State Champion! (Also 1st in DI at Berkeley, ‘03)

3. J’me Forrest, OI: 3rd place 2003; 2nd place 2004

4. William Streb, Expos 12th place 2014; 5th place 2015

5. Wanda Pathomrit, DI: 9th place 2003; 3rd place 2005 

6. Stephanie Perez, Expos: 11th place in 2006; 4th place in 2007

7. David Sforza, OA: 8th place 2005, 5th place 2006

8. Sophie Etemadi, OO: 6th place 2005; 12th place 2006

9. Ashley Ford, DI: 7th place 2003, 8th place 2004

10. Luke Dorsey, OPP 7th place 2014, 12th place 2013

11. Mane Sardaryan, Expos: 15th place 2004, 7th place 2005

12. Vanessa Hooker, OI 7th place 2004; 10th place 2006

13. Nidia Bautista, OPP: 11th place 2007, 13th place 2008

14. Angelina Finau, DI: 13th place 2011, 16th place 2012
 

Nine Monroe speakers have ranked multiple times in MORE than one event:

1. Nathaniel Nalam: 14th in OI (‘02), 14th in OPP (‘03), 6th in OPP (‘04), and 11th in DI (‘05)

2. Nassira Nicola: 1st in Expos (1998), 10th in Congress (2000) and 7th in FX (2001)

3. Cameron Hovsepian: 2006 State OPP Champion and 2007 State TI Champion!!

4. Genine Cumba 10th in Expos (2011) and 4th in OA (2013)

5. Sarah Martellaro: 13th in TI (2009) and 5th in DI (2010)

6. Vanessa Cerritos: 5th in Duo (2005) and 13th in HI (2006)

7. Johannah Huynh: 11th in OA (2008) and 7th in OO (2009)

8. Mike Himes: 13th in NX (2007) and 11th in FX (2008)

9. Dani Dichter 17th in Congress (2012) and 16th in NX (2013)

 

Will You Make It To The Monroe Hall of Fame List?