The World Scholar's Cup (WSC) is an international academic competition with more than 15000 students from 65 countries participating each year. Students go as a team of three, and are challenged to four events based on knowledge about six subjects: science and technology, music and arts, literature, history, social studies and some special area. This year, I decided to represent my school in the second regional round of WSC in Shenzhen.
Previously, my school did not grant much opportunity for students to participate in major global academic events such as the WSC. However, the chance came this year and I was quick to jump to the opportunity. I participated because I knew the competition would teach me a lot about subjects I would rarely touch, and I also wanted an opportunity to test myself against students from some of the most famed schools in our region. This is because although my grades had always been consistently high in school, I had always thought that I had no chance to compare against elite students of famous schools in my area. This was the opportunity I had been looking for to prove me to myself, and thus was one of the key reasons why I joined.
The competition was to happen on December 4th, which just happened to be a day after my birthday. We had planned to go to Shenzhen on December 3rd, so on that day I had a quick birthday at school with my friends, hopped onto a minivan, and headed for Shenzhen with 2 other teams that would represent our school. We arrived late in the afternoon, at around 6pm. After a big dinner and a surprise birthday for a member of one of the other teams, we went back to the hotel to rehearse for the talent show that we had signed up for (another traditional part of the competition, there was always a student talent show). After that relaxing first night, the next 2 days were full of tiresome competition.
Me and my teammates scrambling to prep our arguments during the debate rounds. We were able to successfully beat all 3 teams that challenged us to debate.
The writing challenge was very difficult, but my teammates and I tried our best and achieved much in this round.
On the 3rd day in Shenzhen, we had finally gotten to the awards ceremony. This was after 2 days of hard work and competition, which had rendered me and my team in a state of total exhuastion. Nonetheless, when we were called onstage to recieve our first award (with many more to come), it felt like a shock of electricity had gone through our spines, reinvigorating us as we excitely went onstage to collect our first award. In the next hour, we would collect 3 trophies and almost 40 medals in total, with me winning a solo award of Fourth Place Overall Student. The rest if our achievements can be found here (look for Team 938 in the Senior Division): WSC Shenzhen Round Results
Me and my trophy.
Another thing that is worth mentioning is me getting picked to debate onstage in the Debate Showcase. This was an event where the strongest debate students in the competition were picked to go onstage and debate on-the-spot, with no prior preparation and no idea who we would be working with (all of the chosen students were from different schools). The event allowed me to meet and work with some incredibly smart people from other schools, which made me truly appreciate how many super smart, super hard-working people there are out there. Furthermore, the event challenged our skills of working with new people under pressure, for we were given time constraints to prep and all of our actions were done onstage, viewed by hundreds of scholars and teachers alike.
All in all, this competition was an amazing experience that not only made me more confident in myself, but also strengthened many of my skills such as my abilities to debate, work under pressure, and speak onstage. The competition also allowed me to gain new knowledge in a variety of areas I would usually not touch, such as social studies, history and literature. I also met some amazingly smart and hard-working people, forging friendships that would motivate me to work even harder on my own studies. Finally, I came out of the competition smarter than when I went into it, which I think is the most valuable takeaway I can ever get from any event.
