The St. Nicholas School team mark their names in global contest

Nguyen Quynh Phuong, Tran Van Hung, and Van Tuan Nam are the three students of the St. Nicholas International School (SNS) team that succeeded with superior performance at the Danang round of Cup. At the Sydney Global Round of the World Scholar’s Cup 2019, they had an opportunity to explore different aspects of a global competition titled “A World on the Margins” in four intense sessions.

In the first session called Scholar’s Bowl, participants have to answer increasingly challenging questions within a limited time. After that, in the Scholar’s Challenge session, multiple choice test questions await them.

Participants can select more than one answer to each question but the fewer answers they mark, the higher score they get if they have the correct one.

Collaborative Writing is their next stop where each team member chooses one out of six given prompts. Team members prepare together, then each one writes to answer one prompt, and then they review one another’s work. Lastly, in the session of Team Debate, the members take turn to debate on topics ranging from social policies to poetry.

The team-based competition World Scholar’s Cup (WSC) is conducted with the purpose of creating an international playground for students to experiment and gauge the power of their knowledge and logics, combined with the power of argument in different fields of social life.

Each year, the competition attracts thousands of students from countries around the world. Participants of WSC have a chance to apply their knowledge and argumentative skills to actual situations, thereby proposing solutions for problems the world is now facing. Each team participating in WSC consists of three members, one from each of three levels: Primary (8-11 years old), Junior (12-14 years old), and Senior (15-18 years old). The students are not only able to show their personal talents but also get a chance to interact and connect with friends and peers from all over the world.

At this WSC, St. Nicholas International School was honoured to be the only school representing Central Vietnam. Having passed the Regional Round in Danang, the SNS team was one of the 130 elite teams that made it to the Global Round in Darling Harbor, Sydney.

The team has taken home a total of 12 gold medals and seven silver medals. Nguyen Quynh Phuong won silver in Debate and another silver in Arts. Van Tuan Nam took a gold in Science and two silvers in Social and Writing. Most notably, Tran Thanh Hung won 11 gold and three silvers for Writing, Debate and School Top Scholar, ranking ninth in the top 10 to receive the honour trophy and was the highest ranking Vietnamese student in the finale of the competition.

Along with these individual prizes, the SNS team also brought home a gold medal for Debate, a gold medal for Scholar’s Bowl, and a silver medal for Global Round and is soon heading to Yale University in the US for the Tournament of Champions.

Having achieved big successes in this competition on international arena is a great joy and pride for SNS and its students, a milestone in their life-long learning experience. Moreover, this is setting a launching pad for students to soar high and to further their dreams beyond the St. Nicholas International School’s learning environment.