Indian teen becomes top of the global class with World Scholar’s Cup win
A teenager from Dubai has beaten thousands of pupils to win the international award of the World Scholar’s Cup.
Vishnumaya Deepakchandran, a Grade 9 pupil at Gems Modern Academy, won the junior category at the event in Barcelona, Spain.
Vishnumaya, 13, attributed her success to months of hard work, including hours of debating practice, research and general knowledge quizzes.
“Winning the top position was a great feeling,” she said. “I was representing my school, my team and my country. I feel like my hard work has paid off and I’m also happy I was able to make my school and my coach proud.”
Abhay Sharma, Muktha Kaja and Rohit Vivek, also pupils at Gems Modern Academy, won the world championship team trophy in the junior category.
The World Scholar’s Cup brings young minds together from around the globe to discuss burning issues.
Pupils compete in four events including essay writing, debating, an individual general knowledge quiz and a team quiz. This year, 3,000 students from more than 55 countries took part.
Students also had to debate against three teams and were ranked on individual and team points. They had to write a creative essay and then faced 120 questions on literature, science, social studies, history, art and music in the individual quiz.
Aadit Palicha, Dheeraj Devarajan and Sachin Jude Fernando from the International Baccalaureate course at Gems Modern Academy won 10th place in the senior category.
Sumana Chatterjee, head of debating at the school, said: “The pupils didn’t go home during the summer holidays. They all stayed back and trained for the competition. We made sure we had a holistic programme in place. Their writing was tested by teachers and they also had intense debating practice.”
Vishnumaya said: “The experience was really eye-opening. We met pupils from more than 50 countries and we learnt a lot about other cultures. Being in a room with children from so many different nationalities and schools was a wonderful feeling and I believe competitions of this kind help us to develop a range of skills across competitive areas.”
Her winning essay focused on whether parents should choose a child’s first friend.
“In my essay, I developed themes of independence and the importance of individuality in our social interactions,” Vishnumaya said.
Abhay, 14, said: “It was such a proud moment for my team. Having lived in Dubai for 12 years, I’ve always enjoyed living in a multicultural society but interacting with a bigger group at WSC was an even better experience. Not only were we individually strong scholars but we worked well together as a team, and that’s what helped us win.”