During a recent Friday lunchtime, several dozen students trickled into a corner room in the High School carrying their lunches. To an unsuspecting outsider, it looked like a normal lunchtime gathering – until the alpaca mascots, medals and trophies were brought out!

After months of anticipation, WAB’s World Scholar's Cup (WSC) participants finally received the awards they won at a regional competition in May. Almost 60 Middle School students took part in the online regional round, while 15 High School students participated in a different regional round. All in all, WAB High School students won 130 gold medals, 37 silver medals, and 16 trophies. WAB Middle School students won 187 gold medals, 144 silver medals, and 10 trophies.

World Scholar’s Cup at WAB is both a student club and an international competition that culminates in the prestigious Tournament of Champions at Yale University for those who make it through regional and global rounds. The competition has four events: Team Debate, Collaborative Writing, Scholar’s Bowl, and Scholar’s Challenge. These events usually revolve around a yearly theme, divided between six areas of knowledge: Science & Technology, Special Area, Social Studies, History, Art & Music, and Literature & Media. Last May, WAB students won first place in all four events.

World Scholar’s Cup at WAB is structured to prepare students in these four events, but having fun is just as important, as one of the club’s leaders Billy Z. explained:

“World Scholar’s Cup is a truly unique group of curious scholars who also aren’t too deadly serious about things. So, we learn, but we also enjoy ourselves while doing so, which is really the best combination to have. What we end up with is much more than a glorified tutor class—we are a community.”

The club runs fun games every few weeks that also serve as learning experiences and they have a prize system to further incentivize students to participate.

This combination of fun and academic challenges is a recipe that clearly works. In the May competitions, the Top 3 Champion (overall) Teams were all WAB High School teams. Additionally, Vanessa Z. and Trinity L. came 1^st and 3^rd respectively for the Top Champion Scholars (overall individual). Faye H. also won an extremely prestigious and recognized award within the WSC (known as the ‘Asimov Award’) for high scores and extensive knowledge across all assessed subject areas. High School students Hanna W. and Eloise W. also won 1^st place individual awards for debate and writing respectively.

“In our combined 11 years of involvement with the World Scholar’s Cup, this is by far the most successful delegation WAB has had at any Regional Round. Our students have won numerous, prestigious academic accolades, and we are extremely proud of all their accomplishments,” said Club Leader Jeremy A.

World Scholar’s Cup Club at WAB hopes to continue to coach and refine the skills of the WSC community, but also to make sure that the process is as enjoyable as possible. They’d like to leave students with useful debate knowledge, but also good memories.

And an alpaca.