The following article is written by Thomas (G10).

Over the summer holidays, 12 KIS students went and participated in the phenomenon known as the World Scholar’s Cup. After a successful regional round on March 17-18, the following students then went on to partake in both the Hanoi and Athens global rounds:

Junior Division- Hanoi

Becca (G8)

Ankit, Jedi (G9)

Junior Division- Athens

PF (G9)

Senior Division

Mac, Yash (G9)

Monet, Thomas (G10)

Kate, Isaac, Thalia (G12)

Mimmi (Class of ’17)

All the teams were completely self-organised, with some parental assistance with regards to accommodation, transport and registration, but all the studying was done by the students on their own. Special recognition and appreciation goes out to Kate Power (G12) for essentially spearheading the operation. The WSC students owe her a debt of gratitude.

World Scholar’s Cup consists of four areas : Debate, Writing, Scholar’s Challenge (a multiple choice quiz) and Scholar’s Bowl (questions presented in a game show style).

We could be found debating concepts like hyperloops, big data, mythology and a plethora of other ideas. For writing, which was essentially debate in written form, the scholars explored an idea related to a subject that they had studied for that round. Because that wasn’t enough, the good folks at WSC threw in a good ol’ exam, which they naturally relabeled the “Scholar’s Challenge”. But knowing that there was always a balance between work and fun, they add in the “Scholar’s Bowl” which is a quiz bowl, but with more alpaca memes than you can count.

Overall, it was an incredibly successful round with the following notable results:

• KIS came back with 4/5 teams making it to Yale for Tournament of Champions (if they choose to attend)
• KIS came back with a total of 45 medals across all five teams.
• A KIS senior placed 33rd overall
• A trophy (!!!) for the Sixth Place Writing Team in the Senior Division.

Considering the huge attendance for the Global Rounds, the feats accomplished are incredible. For the Hanoi Global Rounds, the attendance was about 3,600 scholars from around the globe. With around 2000+ in the Junior Division and around 1500 in the Senior Division.

A huge congratulations to those who attended the Global Rounds, whether a medal or trophy was won or not. Another congratulations to those who have made it to Yale, and my commiserations to those who haven’t made it or are unable to make it to Yale this year.

I leave you with words that only Karl Marx himself would’ve been able to appreciate, SCHOLARS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!