St Chris Scholars @ Yale

The culmination of the World Scholar’s Cup competition took place in November at Yale University, USA. Two teams of St Chris students took part after securing their invitation at the Global Round of the competition in Singapore in June. As before, the competition consisted of four rounds, featuring debating, writing and two multi-subject tests. Our students were amongst 500 scholars from over 30 countries. The programme started with an address from US poet BJ Best, who explained the inspiration behind his poetry along with his diagnosis of Bi-Polar Disorder, one element that the students had studied within the ‘World Within’ competition theme. The ‘Scholar’s Scavenge’ then provided an opportunity to make friends with students from other countries whilst exploring the city of New Haven and the impressive Yale University campus. Two real alpacas (the mascot of the WSC) also made an appearance! Travelling all the way to the USA, we were keen to see Boston (including visits to MIT and Harvard universities) and spend a day in New York to take in Times Square, the Empire State Building and the thought-provoking 9-11 Museum and Memorial. The biggest day of the competition included debates, of which our teams won 5 out of their 6 contests. The motions included whether products and service should have warning labels and also if people should be permitted to take personality altering drugs. After a Thanksgiving Dinner on the final day we were addressed by local US Senator, Chris Murphy, who implored the students to take on leadership opportunities when young. The excitement built until the competition results were announced! All of our 6 students received medals for their achievements, including:

Anish Vishwakoti

16^th overall in the Senior Division (There were nearly 40,000 students competing in the WSC over the course of the year!)

Harsh Ainapure

5^th place in the Writing Competition

Anish Vishwakoti, Shawn Amirthan & Harsh Ainapure

3^rd place in the Scholar’s Challenge, 10^th overall in the team competition

Ali Al-Saffar

9^th place in the Writing Competition

Ali Al-Saffar, Ahmed Abdulhameed & Hesham Albaharna

11^th place in the Team Debating Competition

The competition was a fantastic opportunity for the students to work together and meet students from across the World. St Chris once again represented Bahrain with distinction, including the honour of Ahmed Abdulhameed carrying the Bahrain flag in the World Scholar’s Cup ceremony. The World Scholar’s Cup competition resumes in January when we host the Bahrain regional event. The success of our 6 students this time should inspire others to join the World Scholar’s Cup adventure!