Saint Maur Students Join the Tournament of Champions at Yale University As some students have noticed, five students were not seen at school for more than a week earlier this month, as they were away to New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States to attend the World Scholar’s Cup Tournament of Champions.

Two Grade 8 students participated in the junior division of the World Scholar’s Cup. In the senior division, three Grade 9 students, competed as one of the youngest teams in the division.

The Tournament of Champions, simply known as the ToC, is the final tournament of the World Scholar’s Cup, or the WSC. The WSC is a place for scholars from around the world to compete in four categories: Team Debate, Individual Scholar’s Challenge (a multiple-choice test), Collaborative Writing, and the Scholar’s Bowl. The participants are tested on their teamwork and public speaking skills, as well as their knowledge of each year’s theme (this year’s theme was "Reigniting the Future"). Many of the guiding questions were based on the study of the past, all the way to the future, where everything was automated. The WSC team makes sure to include information from a very wide range of subject areas, from facts on Mount Eyjafjallajökull to an analysis of Kendrick Lamar’s “Black Panther” (2018).

Both the junior scholars and the senior scholars competed against others on the stated skills, and made huge achievements. The junior team in particular faced a challenge from the very beginning of the tournament, as they were a pair, not a complete team. They first had to find a stranger who would team up with them to meet the minimum requirement of having three people per team. Despite these challenges, they were able to win many medals when it came to the competition.

“I honestly did not expect to win anything like this,” said one of the students who participated in the Senior Division. “Not only were we the youngest among the 1 200 scholars, but we were also able to compete on the same field as older scholars. On top of all things, I think the greatest thing we earned was the experience of observing a top-level learning atmosphere of Yale University, as well as the relationships built between other scholars from diverse backgrounds.”

The students who participated are proud to say that they brought back a total of 23 medals from the Tournament of Champions. This amazing opportunity would not have been possible without the support of all the teachers at Saint Maur, especially Mr. Feezell, who supported and cheered them on from day one.

While the World Scholar’s Cup might seem all fun and games with the alpacas given to every one of the students, the scavenger hunts, and the Scholar’s Ball, WSC is truly a place where friendships and connections are made and flourish. WSC is genuinely an amazing event that brought 1200 scholars from 67 countries around the world together to learn, collaborate, and build life-lasting relationships.

This article was originally published in The Maurdian, the high school student newspaper.