“A New Cohort of CISH World Scholar’s Cups Teams Impresses at the Wuhan Regional Round”

By Ryan Kiefer

The World Scholar’s Cup is an international academic competition that allows students to develop and demonstrate their knowledge across a variety of subjects. Students compete with their international peers in four events which including debating, collaborative writing, a multiple-choice test, and a team quiz bowl. The competition encourages critical and creative thinking, teamwork, and open-mindedness among the competitors. Our students competed at the Wuhan regional round on January 6 from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Our teams consisted of an experienced senior team of Elsie Jiang, Luke Zhang, and Aileena Wang. This team received three trophies for finishing in first place in the Scholar’s Challenge, Scholar’s Bowl, and as the highest scoring team overall in the senior division. These students also came in second place in the Team Debate and Collaborative Writing events. In addition to their collaborative accomplishments, Luke received 2 silver and 1 gold medal and Aileena received 2 gold and 1 silver medal for their individual achievements. Elsie Jiang impressed everyone in attendance by placing third in writing and in debate, as well as receiving five gold medals and one silver in the Scholar’s Challenge. She received the Jac Khor award for overall performance and was the highest scoring individual across all events in the Senior Division.

Our first-year teams consisting entirely of Grade 6 students performed exceptionally well. The team of Felix Zheng, Daniel Kim, and Howard Chen placed first in all four events in the Junior Division and were the highest scoring team, for which they received 5 first-place trophies. Individually, Daniel, Howard, and Felix were ranked as the third, fourth, and fifth best debater, respectively, among the juniors. Howard and Felix also received gold and silver medals for their performance in the Collaborative Writing event. Finally, Felix was third highest scoring junior in the competition and received four gold medals in the Scholar’s Challenge.

The second junior team was made up of Lucas Lee and Yujun Kim. They placed third in the Scholar’s Bowl and received a silver medal. Lucas also received a silver medal for his performance in writing, as well as three silver and two gold medals in the Scholar’s Challenge. Lucas also received the Jac Khor award for his overall performance. Finally, Yujun received a gold medal in the subject of history on the Scholar’s Challenge.

Our final junior team consisted of Kaixian Gao and Lily Hsia. In addition to placing second in the Scholar’s Bowl and third in Team Debate, Lily and Kaixian received numerous individual medals. Lily won gold medals for first place for her individual contributions in debate and writing and three gold medals and two silver in the Scholar’s Challenge. Lily also received a trophy and gold medal for being the highest scoring Junior scholar across all events. Kaixian was right behind Lily, finishing in second place in debate, writing, and overall score. He also received three silver medals for his performance in the Scholar’s Challenge.

All of these students have shown remarkable determination, courage, and dedication to compete against students from across the globe while maintaining their regular studies. The exceptional performance of our Junior teams is commendable and we look forward to seeing them compete in the Global Round.

Junior Division

1.  Kaixian Gao and Lily Hsia

2.  Yujun Kim and Lucas Lee

3. Daniel Kim, Felix Zheng, and Howard Chen

Senior Division

1. Yunqian (Elsie) Jiang, Luke Zhang, and Aileena Wang