World Scholar's Cup Draws Delegations from 25 Countries to Dubai
Dubai, U.A.E. (PRWEB) July 07, 2013 -- Nearly 1,600 students from 25 countries swept into the United Arab Emirates last week to celebrate learning at the 2013 Global Round of the World Scholar’s Cup, hosted by the American University in Dubai.
Countries in attendance included Kenya, Hungary, Nigeria, Romania, the United States, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Qatar, Singapore, the Czech Republic, Korea, Japan, China, Brunei, Bangladesh, India, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
“The students came as competitors, but they left as a community,” said Daniel Berdichevsky, the 36 year-old founder of the World Scholar’s Cup and Harvard Kennedy School graduate whom the participants refer to as their alpaca-in-chief, after the program’s whimsical camelid mascot.
“It was like falling into a cultural soup, along with a few alpacas as spices,” shared first-time participant Dahyung Oh, a medal-winning writer from Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies in Korea. “What I loved about it that it wasn't a competition where everyone is obsessed about who comes in first place, but a scene of cooperation and academic interaction.”
Over the course of the four-day event, teams debated pressing global issues related to the program’s 2013 theme, A World in Motion—including whether communities should have the right to bar tourism and whether NSA leaker Edward Snowden should be regarded as a hero. They worked together to research and write papers on topics on diverse topics connected to the theme, from the science of transportation to the history and future of economic globalization. They took a comprehensive written test covering the six interconnected subjects they had explored all year long, then raced the clock before a live audience at the American University in Dubai to solve creative challenges in the high-stakes Scholar’s Bowl.
In one challenge, students deciphered what the impact on human migration might have been had different land bridges connected the world’s continents 30,000 years ago. In another, they inverted the narrative perspective of Ken Liu’s award-winning short story, “The Paper Menagerie.” Some involved video clips: for instance, students analyzed TV news coverage of global climate change, and connected a prequel to the film Ice Age with real-world geological processes. All 525 teams submitted their answers to each challenge simultaneously using powerful new audience response technology from program supporter http://www..iclicker.com/ [i>clicker __title__ i>clicker].
“An event this large wouldn’t have been possible without a system as reliable and easy to use as i>clicker,” said Zac Ellington, the World Scholar’s Cup’s international program director. “Because all students can count on the opportunity to answer, they aren’t racing to buzz in first, but to think through each problem as a team.”
“The program inspired us to take on larger problems with a new, global perspective, in a setting where people of all nationalities can work in harmony and become friends," confirmed Angela Lin, a member of the winning junior division team, from Dulwich College Shanghai in China.
Herbert Chang, the top-scoring participant and a member of the winning senior division team, from Kaohsiung American School in Taiwan, agreed: “The two greatest prizes the World Scholar's Cup has given us are the drive to learn and a more complete view of the world. It’s a community that students everywhere are proud to be part of.”
Networking and community-building events are at the heart of every World Scholar’s Cup. In Dubai they included a mischievous scavenger hunt at the Dubai Mall, an outdoor mixer at a traditional village by the Dubai Creek, an exciting desert safari to a simulated Bedouin camp, a talent show that featured over 40 acts by students from every participating country, and arguably the weekend’s most popular event: the prom-like Scholar’s Ball, a formal gala dance held at the J.W. Marriott Marquis.
“It was better than my own prom,” admitted Ashley Branch, a senior at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a first-time volunteer at the World Scholar’s Cup. "It's not like a regular prom, it's a nerd prom—and nerds know how to party.”
Approximately 150 of the 525 teams in attendance earned invitations to the program's annual Tournament of Champions at Yale University, hosted each November by the Yale International Relations Association.
Special guest presenters included Dr. Les Martisko, CEO of the United States Academic Decathlon, Fatma Al Marri, CEO of the Dubai Schools Agency, Dave Madden, Director of the International History Bowl and Bee, Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin, the Consul-General of Malaysia, and Dr. Lance de Masi, president of the American University in Dubai.
Dr. de Masi brought the four-day celebration of learning to a close with a salute to the over 2,500 students, parents, teachers, and community members who had gathered for the grand finale. “The World Scholar’s Cup is about what education will be in the future,” he concluded, “not what it was in the past.”
The World Scholar’s Cup Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing accessible 21st century learning, leadership, and networking opportunities to all the world’s youth, in accordance with its guiding principle: “Every student a scholar.” It is currently accepting bids to host the 2014, 2015, and 2016 Global Rounds. Learn more at http://www.scholarscup.org.
Jeremy Chumley, World Scholar's Cup, http://www.scholarscup.org, (818) 716-2820, [email protected]
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