Around two weeks ago, I went to Yale University for the Tournament of Champions for the World Scholars Cup with Peter — my teammate — and Mr. Marsh. We worked through the regional round in Guangzhou in May, the global round in Kuala Lumpur in June and got qualified for the final round! Even though we only stayed in the United States for one week, this was an unforgettable experience because it not only enabled me to gain knowledge and skills but also provided an opportunity for me to meet some of the best scholars in the world.

    First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Marsh and Mr. Elizaga for their help and support, which they gave us in the past few months on the curriculum of the World Scholars Cup. With their help, and also support from the school, we were able to participate in this event and get some good results that we did not expect. However, we also put lots of time and effort in preparing for the Tournament of Champions. We stayed after school every day until five o’clock for six weeks of training. We also attended the debate club every week in order to practice our debate strategies and skills.

    Back to the main topic, the World Scholars Cup officially started on November 13, but there wasn’t any event related to the curriculum on the first day. In the morning, we gathered in a church, which belonged to Yale University for the opening ceremony. The World Scholars Cup had also invited a keynote speaker — a composer named Sasha Zamler-Carhart, to talk about his special life experience and linked it with this year’s theme: “The World Unbound.”

    We had lunch in the cafeteria of Yale University, and this was the most meaningful meal we had throughout the whole competition because we got the chance to experience the daily food of a Yale student. There were lots of different kinds of food in the cafeteria, and there was even Chinese food (American Chinese food). All the food was provided like a buffet, and I have to say that the food in the Yale cafeteria was much better than what is served at our school, so anyone who is interested in food can consider applying to Yale University!

    After lunch, there was another keynote speech by a professor of statistics from Yale University about how statistics link with our daily lives, which was quite interesting! The next event was the best part of the World Scholars Cup — the scavenger hunt. Why was it the best part? Because 11 people — who were from different countries and cultures — were put in the same group, and we needed to complete some interesting, exciting but also embarrassing tasks. It also gave us the opportunity to become friends with people from around the world. However, it became the worst event when we stepped out of the church because it was freezing in the New Haven November, especially when there were cold winds blowing on our faces.

    On the second day the official competitions were held. The first event of the day was the scholar’s challenge, which was kind of like a multiple-choice test, but you could choose more than one answer. This was the worst event for us, and we felt much better after we finished this test. The second one was collaborative writing, and we needed to produce a discursive essay. We could discuss with our teammates and research for the first 15 minutes; we could also discuss with our teammates for the last 15 minutes. In the end, we got 18th place for team writing, which was more than what we expected. The third and last event of the day was the team debate, which we should have been the best at, but we did not do very well; however, my teammate got 45th place, which shows that all the debate practice over the last few months was not wasted.

    The third day was a day off, but the best part of the day was the Scholar’s Ball in the evening; but I think it was not as good as the one in the global round, so I only stayed there for half an hour. However, I met a Thai girl at the ball, and she introduced some of her friends to me.

    For the last day, the Scholar’s Bowl was the first event in the morning; the most interesting part of this event was that all the scholars were sitting in the same room, and there were no rules, which meant that you could shout out your answers or listen to others’ answers - but it might be the wrong answer. In the afternoon, there was a debate showcase, which put the best debaters of the World Scholars Cup onto the stage, and the motion was also quite interesting: “That dictatorship leads to more progress than regress.” There was a Thanksgiving gala in the evening, and a Spanish teacher — who sat next to us and had been teaching in Qatar for more than five years — told us some interesting things about Qatar and discussed with us about our global perspective research report about the Qatar World Cup that we did in October.

    I learned many new things from this competition: from art and music to social studies. The curriculum of this competition also included some basic knowledge, which we are going to learn in year 11 for history. The debate also gave me a chance to practice my public speaking skills and, of course, debate strategies. Like I have mentioned before, it gave me an opportunity to meet people from around the world — even from countries that I would probably never visit in my life.

    Lastly, our school will be hosting the regional round for the World Scholars Cup next year! Even though it is difficult to get qualified for the Tournament of Champions, it is still very good to try and challenge yourself!