高校生の挑戦！ワールドスカラーズカップ世界チャンピオンへ！

 

Hello, we are Tomoharu Miura, Kai Omote, and Suzu Kitamura, three students from Doshisha International High School in Kyoto, Japan.

 

In March 2017, we came together to compete in the World Scholar's Cup. This year being our first time participating, none of us knew what to expect, however, we surprised ourselves by coming in 2nd place at the Kansai Regional Round and qualifying for the next stage of the competition. At the Hanoi Global Round, we were the 5th place team from East Asia and the 2nd best team from Japan, allowing us to move on to the final championship round.

 

The Tournament of Champions, held at Yale University, will be held in November. We aim to continue doing our best and land among the top teams in the world.

 

About the World Scholar's Cup​

​The World Scholar's Cup (also known as WSC) is a competition for junior and senior high school students. The first ever round was held in Korea in 2007; today, rounds are held in over 50 different countries. Nearly 20,000 students participate in the World Scholar's Cup annually. (the World Scholar's Cup）

 

About our team name: There is a funny story behind our team name “Feet Fingers.” Long story short, after a long day at the Kansai Regional Round, a very tired Tomoharu referred to his toes as “feet fingers.” Equally exhausted, Kai and Suzu found this hilarious, and the team name was born.
 

 

 

The World Scholar's Cup brings together students from over 50 different countries to compete with each other. Students study six subjects that relate to the theme for the year (the 2017 theme is "An Unlikely World"), and compete in four different events: Team Debate, Collaborative Writing, the Scholar's Challenge, and the Scholar's Bowl.

 

Before World Scholar's Cup, none of us had ever competed in a competition of this nature or scale. After a lot of encouragement from two amazing seniors (a huge thank you to Hanaho and Kana!), we decided to compete in the Scholar's Cup in order to challenge ourselves.

 

We are so fortunate to have this opportunity to improve our critical thinking skills, communication skills, and interact with students from all over the world. For detailed information about this competition, visit the World Scholar’s Cup website (www.scholarscup.org)

 

 

 

In preparation for all of the rounds, we have been working extremely hard to study the materials given to us in the 2017 World Scholar's Cup curriculum, as well as practicing our debate and writing skills. Before the Kansai and Hanoi Rounds, we spent our lunch breaks in our school library studying, and met two to three times a week after school with our teacher and other participating students to practice our debate skills. We had to balance our regular schoolwork, club activities, and World Scholar's Cup preparation...a difficult feat but worth it in the end! 

 

In preparation for the Tournament of Champions, we have spent our summer re-studying the materials to gain a deeper understanding of the curriculum topics and meeting at school to maintain and grow our debating skills. Although the school year has started, we will be continuing to study and work towards our goal of becoming one of the top teams at the Tournament!

 

We are very lucky to have such a wonderful opportunity, however, there are many costs involved with partaking in this event. There were many expenses involved with participating in the Hanoi Round, so to lessen the burden on our families, we have decided to use crowdfunding to raise money.

 

To participate in the Tournament of Champions, we will be traveling to the United States, meaning our main expenses will be airfare, hotel fees, transportation, and the registration fee for the competition. This trip will cost roughly 300,000 JPY (about 2,700 USD) per person. Our first goal is to raise enough money to cover our registration fees, and any extra money raised will go towards our other expenses. We ask you to please support us in this endeavor by either donating or sharing our page!

 

For those who wish to donate to us but do not reside in Japan: please contact one of us through Facebook or our team email (teamfeetfingers@gmail.com) to donate through Paypal. Thank you for your support!

 

 

 

Through competing in the Tournament of Champions, we hope to continue improving our debate, writing, and communication skills. We also hope to meet other scholars and make lasting connections with people from all over the world. We are extremely proud to represent not only our school, but also Japan at this event.

 

 

 

＊We will be sending thank you emails written by the three of us to everyone who supports us. 

＊For donations of 5000 yen and above, we will be sending a PDF document with our results and a summary of our experience at the Tournament of Champions along with the thank you letter. 

＊For donations of 15,000 yen and 30,000 yen, we will send a handwritten postcard from us from Yale University/Connecticut. 

＊Those who donate 30,000 yen and above will be specially acknowledged on our summary PDF document.   

＊To those who donate 50,000 yen, we will be sending handwritten letters expressing our thanks and gratitude. 

＊To those who donate 100,000 yen, we will be sending Yale University souvenirs.

＊Companies and organizations that donate the highest option of 150,000 yen will be considered sponsors and will get their name printed onto our team apparel.