SCHOLAR STORY #7 - Maria Volvodova
24/06/20
Scholar Profile:
Name: Maria Volovodova
Age: 15
School: International School of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Country of Origin: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Division: Senior
Social Media: @maria.volov (instagram)
Name: Maria Volovodova
Age: 15
School: International School of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Country of Origin: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Division: Senior
Social Media: @maria.volov (instagram)
When the WSC staff began announcing the top 20 best scoring scholars for their essays Mehar, my teammate, and I pretended to “take a nap”, which entailed simply leaning back into our wooden woolsey hall seats and closing our eyes. The time difference from Amsterdam to New Haven was a six hour one, so we were properly quite out of it (falling asleep at 1 am didn’t help), and this was TOC; I didn’t manage to score anything in writing during globals so how could I possibly score something now? Then Mehar had to vigorously shake me as “Maria Volodova” (Misspelled, of course my 5-syllable Russian last name had two letters stripped from it) was announced and I had to sprint to the stage and receive my 9th place trophy.
I feel like this small snippet is able to completely sum up my entire WSC experience; I think I will do horribly, but I actually manage to scrape by, and with genuinely somewhat ok results. My first WSC season was actually my only season, however I'm still keeping an open mind to hijack someone else's team or join next season.
It all started way back in April, the Regional round which was actually hosted by our school. The first time that I saw the literature notes, as done by my teammate, was the day of the competition right as we were heading into the auditorium to see the opening ceremony, and nevertheless my team still prevailed. Mehar, my insanely smart, powerful, talented superstar of a teammate who went through all three rounds with me and Hanna, my dearest wife who can’t write notes for the life of her helped win achievements that I never thought I would be able to reach in WSC. 1st and 2nd places, gold medals, all the good stuff. The night in between the regional rounds was the first night in my entire life where I wanted tomorrow to come quicker so that I could go back and learn even more.
Our global round was held in the Hague, so what that meant for us dutchies was an hour ride there and back to Amsterdam each day, having to leave a lot of events somewhat early so that we could actually attempt 8 hours of sleep (keyword: attempt). Nevertheless the Hague will forever hold an insanely special place in my heart as that is where I got one of my greatest achievements till date; A first place debate ranking and trophy. I had never seen myself as someone who could do that. I was an acting fanatic, and a faithful member of my school’s debate club, but nothing would ever compare to the pure horror-happy adrenaline that filled me when my name was called up for the showcase. Surely other people from my school were better, right? After going through a minute of breathing exercises and trying not to cry on stage, I was able to collaborate with my team, a group of wonderful debaters and scholars, and I was able to speak on stage and bask in what could only be described as something equal parts terrifying and absolutely amazing. The photos which were taken that round are those I don’t like seeing, because even though i'm holding trophies I am ugly laugh-crying in them (please don’t look for them I beg you).
TOC was the last round, and it was the most bittersweet as it was the round where I had to say goodbye to the program. The people I met there were all people who I still interact with till this day, and every single day felt like a whole new era of experience. I was able to participate in a team with Arjun, someone who wasn’t from my school, and it is still so insane to me how close you are able to get with a person in the span of a week. The trophies didn’t even matter to me in TOC because the experience and the fun far outweighed them.
Now as i'm trying to stop rambling about all the bits of my WSC experience, I will try to finish it in a nice and cohesive way. This program is one which has done something for me I didn’t think anything else could do; it showed me that I was good and it was good to feel proud of myself. Surprisingly I had never felt that before. Scoring top of my school in TOC, first place debate, countless medals, 11th champion scholar, it sounds so shallow to brag about my achievements but to me they prove that I am worthy, and that I don’t have to put myself down and think that I am worse than others. This program creates bonds with people all over the world, educates you beyond belief, and most importantly it improves you as a person and creates confidence and spirit within you that nothing else could quite create. Now on que, this would not have been WSC without all the people from my school delegation and our late nights trashing one particular team’s room (sorry Elektra!), my amazing Teammate Mehar who stayed by my side through all three rounds, my other amazing teammates, Hanna, Ana and Arjun all of who are incredibly intelligent and kind friends, and lastly all the people who I interacted with in the slightest way during my season. Even if you only made eye contact with me, you're still included. Lastly of course thank you to Justine for asking me to do this, however she's probably regretting this after looking through what I wrote.
Thank you for reading this, and I'm sorry.
I feel like this small snippet is able to completely sum up my entire WSC experience; I think I will do horribly, but I actually manage to scrape by, and with genuinely somewhat ok results. My first WSC season was actually my only season, however I'm still keeping an open mind to hijack someone else's team or join next season.
It all started way back in April, the Regional round which was actually hosted by our school. The first time that I saw the literature notes, as done by my teammate, was the day of the competition right as we were heading into the auditorium to see the opening ceremony, and nevertheless my team still prevailed. Mehar, my insanely smart, powerful, talented superstar of a teammate who went through all three rounds with me and Hanna, my dearest wife who can’t write notes for the life of her helped win achievements that I never thought I would be able to reach in WSC. 1st and 2nd places, gold medals, all the good stuff. The night in between the regional rounds was the first night in my entire life where I wanted tomorrow to come quicker so that I could go back and learn even more.
Our global round was held in the Hague, so what that meant for us dutchies was an hour ride there and back to Amsterdam each day, having to leave a lot of events somewhat early so that we could actually attempt 8 hours of sleep (keyword: attempt). Nevertheless the Hague will forever hold an insanely special place in my heart as that is where I got one of my greatest achievements till date; A first place debate ranking and trophy. I had never seen myself as someone who could do that. I was an acting fanatic, and a faithful member of my school’s debate club, but nothing would ever compare to the pure horror-happy adrenaline that filled me when my name was called up for the showcase. Surely other people from my school were better, right? After going through a minute of breathing exercises and trying not to cry on stage, I was able to collaborate with my team, a group of wonderful debaters and scholars, and I was able to speak on stage and bask in what could only be described as something equal parts terrifying and absolutely amazing. The photos which were taken that round are those I don’t like seeing, because even though i'm holding trophies I am ugly laugh-crying in them (please don’t look for them I beg you).
TOC was the last round, and it was the most bittersweet as it was the round where I had to say goodbye to the program. The people I met there were all people who I still interact with till this day, and every single day felt like a whole new era of experience. I was able to participate in a team with Arjun, someone who wasn’t from my school, and it is still so insane to me how close you are able to get with a person in the span of a week. The trophies didn’t even matter to me in TOC because the experience and the fun far outweighed them.
Now as i'm trying to stop rambling about all the bits of my WSC experience, I will try to finish it in a nice and cohesive way. This program is one which has done something for me I didn’t think anything else could do; it showed me that I was good and it was good to feel proud of myself. Surprisingly I had never felt that before. Scoring top of my school in TOC, first place debate, countless medals, 11th champion scholar, it sounds so shallow to brag about my achievements but to me they prove that I am worthy, and that I don’t have to put myself down and think that I am worse than others. This program creates bonds with people all over the world, educates you beyond belief, and most importantly it improves you as a person and creates confidence and spirit within you that nothing else could quite create. Now on que, this would not have been WSC without all the people from my school delegation and our late nights trashing one particular team’s room (sorry Elektra!), my amazing Teammate Mehar who stayed by my side through all three rounds, my other amazing teammates, Hanna, Ana and Arjun all of who are incredibly intelligent and kind friends, and lastly all the people who I interacted with in the slightest way during my season. Even if you only made eye contact with me, you're still included. Lastly of course thank you to Justine for asking me to do this, however she's probably regretting this after looking through what I wrote.
Thank you for reading this, and I'm sorry.