SCHOLAR STORY #9 - Riya Agarwal
29/03/19
Scholar Profile:
Name: Riya Agarwal
Age: 16
School: Ecole Globale International Girls School, India
Division: Senior
Social Media: @_riiiii.yeah_
Name: Riya Agarwal
Age: 16
School: Ecole Globale International Girls School, India
Division: Senior
Social Media: @_riiiii.yeah_
There are many instances where life has a rather unique sense of humor and where it throws you into paradoxical situations that render you stunned. For me, the participation in the World Scholar’s Cup did that and more. The World Scholar’s Cup was a catalyst of change for my life. It all started in 2015, when my school’s first ever delegation (and among them all my naïve twelve-year self, intrigued by the prospect of such lucrative achievements) to the WSC came back from the regionals with so many medals. But I would eventually find that this change that was brought about by the experience of the WSC was about more than medals, more than an excuse to get out of class to train with like-minded individuals, yet more than even the experience of the WSC itself – it was about growth. Before joining WSC, the concept of learning seemed to me like something that should only be confined to school. Anything learning outside of my school syllabus was practically for college applications.
WSC changed that.
Every year, I had disciplined myself into studying the curriculum not out of necessity but out of interest, and that is the true spirit of WSC: learning for the sake of learning. At the global round, after seeing Daniel and Burch drop to the stage in space suits, eating cafeteria food in-between debates, receiving my first alpaca, and raving the night out, I realised that didn’t stay up late at night researching about Elvis Presley or give a speech in a meeting room trembling with anxiety because I wanted something nice on my resume. I did all that because I wholeheartedly wanted to. Before joining WSC, I had never thought that I would one day ever have the opportunity to talk to a scholar from Kenya about homelessness or a scholar from Kazakhstan about the different formats of debate. Speaking from 4 years of WSC experience, there is no other community that can bond together as we have—celebrating each other at the talent show and supporting others’ community pwaajects without fail, even as we compete against each other.
However, it’s truly about neither the medals nor the prestige, it’s about the experience of a lifetime that is truly meaningful and worth remembering. WSC is not just “some competition”, it is, as Daniel has said before, “a celebration of learning”.
WSC changed that.
Every year, I had disciplined myself into studying the curriculum not out of necessity but out of interest, and that is the true spirit of WSC: learning for the sake of learning. At the global round, after seeing Daniel and Burch drop to the stage in space suits, eating cafeteria food in-between debates, receiving my first alpaca, and raving the night out, I realised that didn’t stay up late at night researching about Elvis Presley or give a speech in a meeting room trembling with anxiety because I wanted something nice on my resume. I did all that because I wholeheartedly wanted to. Before joining WSC, I had never thought that I would one day ever have the opportunity to talk to a scholar from Kenya about homelessness or a scholar from Kazakhstan about the different formats of debate. Speaking from 4 years of WSC experience, there is no other community that can bond together as we have—celebrating each other at the talent show and supporting others’ community pwaajects without fail, even as we compete against each other.
However, it’s truly about neither the medals nor the prestige, it’s about the experience of a lifetime that is truly meaningful and worth remembering. WSC is not just “some competition”, it is, as Daniel has said before, “a celebration of learning”.