The World Scholar's Cup features competitions such as the Team Debate, Scholar's Bowl, Collaborative Writing, and the Scholar's Challenge. It is a test of criticial thinking, team work and collaboration. KIS students formed 5 teams, which competed in this event that had 3,600 participants from schools around the world. 4 out of our 5 teams did so well that they were invited to Yale University to compete in the World Scholar's Cup Tournament of Champions! Below is Thomas from Grade 10's writeup about the experience.

By Thomas, G10

Over the summer holidays, 12 KIS students went and participated in the phenomenon known as the World Scholar's Cup (WSC). 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:

In the Junior Division - Hanoi, we had Becca from Grade 8, and Ankit and Jedi from Grade 9. The Junior Division - Athens ahd PF from Grade 9. The Senior Division had Mac and Yash from Grade 9, Monet and Thomas from Grade 10, Kate, Isaac and Thalia from Grade 12 and Mimmi from the Class of 2017.

All the teams were completely self-organised, with some parental assistance with regards to accommodation, transport and registration, but all the competitions were 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 added 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 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!"