Written by:Janelle Garrett, Lower Secondary Coordinator
Arnav Patel, Armand Dubois, and Samuel Lewis, long time YCIS students in Year 10, have had a spectacular start to Upper Secondary, just recently returning as Asian Champions, Top in China, 3rdin Writing, and 29thin the world after competing against thousands of studentsat Yale University in the global “Tournament of Champions” for the World Scholar’s Cup. This is a prestigious academic competition that takes place at a regional level all around the world, with quizzes, writing competitions and debates. They enter as a team of three and work together as a team in preparation for and during the competition.
Arnav, Armand, and Sam sat down to share a little about their World Scholars Cup journey and their experience at Yale:
Arnav and Armand, who participated in World Scholar’s Cup as a CCA since Year 8, finally convinced Sam to join them before the Shanghai competition last April, and with varied interests and academic strengths, they were confident they would make a strong team. Encouraged by their great results, the medals, and the fuzzy “alpacas” the quirky World Scholars consider coveted prizes, they decided that they would go beyond their basic preparation and try their shot at the World Scholars Cup Global Rounds in Kuala Lumpur in June.
“KL was a bump in the road, the competition was really fierce.” Arnav said. “We barely scraped by and managed to qualify for the Yale Tournament of Champions”. “But we didn’t feel we had shown our potential,” Sam chimed in. Armand explained, “But we figured out how to prepare strategically after that and became motivated to really learn more and work harder.”
“We learned about the science of memory, the history of diplomacy, black markets…it made it really interesting” Armand said. “Knowing moreabout different things, artwork, music, and literature means when I hear a song, or read something, watch the news, read an article, or hear a joke, I really get it, and it’s all connected.We’re more excited about learning for learning’s sake, and it’s easier to learn because we’re motivated to do it,” Sam explained. “It’s more authentic, it’s collaborative, it’s all about teamwork and that makes it fun.”
Arnav began at YCIS Pudong in K3, Armand in Year 2, and Sam joined in Year 8 after four years at YCIS Beijing. Their hard work, intellect, and 27 combined years of YCIS education paid off in the end with their incredible results. “Being at Yale University, in such an intellectually stimulating environment, with so many other brilliant students from all over the world, was really inspiring,” they said. We made new friends and we also got to tour Harvard and MIT in Boston, which was amazing.”
With plenty of medals, great memories, new friends, a lot more knowledge, and a healthy dose of Ivy League inspiration, the boys came back to Shanghai after missing over a week of classes to tons of make-up work and rave reviews after three nights on the stage as stars of the Upper Secondary production of the Broadway play, “Noises Off.” We hope their motivation and enthusiasm for learning will carry them through. We look forward to seeing these three YCIS Pudong Class of 2022 world scholars continue to learn and thrive.
***When Sam, Armand and Arnav are not busy being brilliant ‘World Scholars’, they spend their time on stage making audiences laugh with their antics in theatre productions, negotiating solutions for complex global issues as a delegate at Model United Nations conferences, playing the violin in Sinfonia, teaching Minecraft to Primary students, playing sports and videogames, and more. They still usually find time to do their homework.
