Avonian Wins Big at World Scholar’s Cup

For those unfamiliar, the World Scholar’s Cup (WSC) is an annual international academic competition with more than 50,000 students from over 60 countries participating every year. Teams of three first compete in a local regional round. Teams that score high enough move on to a global round. Teams that score high enough in the global round are then invited to the Tournament of Champions held at Yale University. 

Avon does not formally organize a team for this event, but allows students the freedom to compete in it. This year, sophomore Xiran “Felix” Fan did much more than just qualify for the Tournament of Champions, he came away with several awards for his performances. 

Felix first competed in the local round in Shanghai, China, over the summer where his team placed second overall and passed through to the global round. “That gave me inspiration to really try for it, to see how far I could go,” he says. Multiple cities host a global round of this competition, with Felix’s taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Felix and his team dominated this round. In fact, he earned the title of national champion of China, meaning he had the highest score of anyone from his home country. Of course, this also qualified him for the Tournament of Champions. 

Luckily for Felix, the Tournament of Champions is a week-long competition that takes place at Yale University in New Haven in late November while Avon is in session. This meant that he didn’t have far to travel, and his teachers at Avon were more than willing to excuse his attendance so that he could participate. 

He certainly made those teachers proud. Felix earned seven gold and four silver medals for his outstanding performances in each event. At every WSC competition there are four different events: the scholar’s challenge, which is a 120-question multiple choice quiz; the team debate; a persuasive essay; and the scholar’s bowl, which is an intense team trivia event. In every event, both the individual and the team each get a score. Out of almost 17,000 individuals competing, Felix placed 25th in the scholar’s challenge, 19th in the writing competition, and 12th in debate. This places him in the top 0.1% in the world overall, in the top 0.062% in debate, and the top 0.158% in writing. 

Felix did all of this in only his first year being involved in the competition. He admits, however, that he has some natural talent when it comes to the debate portion at least. “My friends back home always joke that it’s never a good idea to get in an argument with me,” Felix laughs. “They suggested I enter the World Scholar’s Cup. I was very fascinated and drawn to the debate aspect. Through this competition I’ve discovered I have a talent for it.”

He adds that while the debate portion is his favorite event, the aspect of interacting with new people is his favorite overall feature of the competition. “The World Scholar’s Cup gives people with similar interests from different countries a medium to come together and find ways to be united, to understand each other further. This is very important and can do a lot of good,” Felix says. 

Of course, it's also nice to have performed so well. “Initially, I was thinking I would just give it a try, but to win so many medals, it feels rewarding. Obviously, you put so much effort into it, you want to get something out of it. It exceeded my expectations.”

Felix says he is already looking forward to next year’s competition where he is sure to make us proud again. In fact, he says he would love to have other Avon students as his teammates next year if anyone else is interested. 

For more information about the World Scholar’s Cup, visit their website www.scholarscup.org.