Following our student success in the Thai Regional Finals in Bangkok last week, we were very proud to host the Taiwan Regional Finals of the World Scholars’ Cup at HIS on Saturday, March 28th. This continues the tradition started last year when we were honored to be asked to be the Taiwan Regional Centre by the founders of the Scholars’ Cup, Mr. Daniel Berdichevsky and Mr. Ross Otto. Almost double the number of teams from five different international schools in Taiwan competed in this year’s event, a grand total of 33 teams! HIS was very happy to host Daniel and Ross at school for the day’s leading up to the event and had an inside look at all the hard work and the ups and downs that go into its organization, including the loss of luggage of Monica, assistant organizer of the event, who arrived on Friday. In Monica’s luggage (which is now somewhere in Los Angeles) was the new buzzer system to be used for the first time yesterday along with other necessities, which involved searching Hsinchu and making various changes to the program. New certificates and trophies were made at top speed at Hsinchu Glass Museum and local print shop. Once again the speed and convenience of sevices of Taiwan came to the rescue with beautiful trophies.



The day of the event started early with some teams leaving home at 5am. The Kaoshiung teams had stayed overnight to avoid the morning journey and to be well rested. The morning’s event, starting at 8am, included the essay and individual written mutiple choice quiz. This was followed by a splendid lunch in our cafeteria. After a very brief break, debate teams dispersed to different locations to compete in the debate section. We would like to thank Mr. Rob Mclaren, Mr. Jesse Duffield, Mr. and Mrs. Ken Willis, Simon (visiting from Yilan, eastern Taiwan), and senior students. Special mention must be made of Simon who read about this on the World Scholars’ Cup website and traveled by bus and train for five hours to visit us out of his great interest for the event. Once here, he committed himself to help in every way throughout the day and we want to thank him for his much needed and appreciated assistance. Sorry Simon, we don’t seem to have your last name!

We were very happy to welcome parents and students as spectators to the debate. This added to the atmosphere and showed our community support for these young competitors. Many parents and their children came and stayed the entire day, as did coaches, teachers and parents from the other international schools, who made the long journey to attend this event. Following the length debate tournament, all students gathered in the school auditorium for a much awaited Scholars’ Challenge marathon quiz. This is a time controlled multiple choice quiz which requires teamwork and an indepth understanding an application of the six areas of the Scholars’ Cup curriculum. This was a truly exciting event with spectator parents, students, and teachers making their own guesses and finding the questions extreme difficult. At the end of the Scholars’ Challenge, names of six individual best debators were announced for a truly delicious dinner. During dinner break, organizers and helpers were busy setting the stage for the next scene – The showcase debate for the individual debate winners who formed new teams.

Following the lively junior and senior debates, came the moment all contestants were waiting for, the announcement of winners, presentation of awards, medals, and trophies. Supporters from Grace Christian Academy, Taipei Dominican School, Morrison Academy Kaoshiung, Kaoshiung American School, and Morrison Academy Taichung excitedly cheered their teams and friends as names were announced. After a splendid day, the last guests left HIS at well after 11pm, happy but exhausted after a packed and exciting day. HIS would like to thank Daniel and Ross for choosing the school again and also for the curriculum of World Scholars’ Cup which does so much to stretch and extend the students’ knowledge and thinking processes. We would also like to thank the teachers, parents, and admin staff who spent up to an 18 hour day at school, and a magnificent group of students – those who represented HIS in Bangkok last week and friends who were also there working hard for the duration and proved to be splendid ambassadors for our school. We look forward to hosting the event again in 2010 and wish all finalists every success in the Singapore Finals in June.