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Ace student Ali Al-Saffar was judged the ‘top student’ in a prestigious global competition beating some of the most able pupils from around the world … but unfortunately he hasn’t any prizes to put on the family mantelpiece.
He was among a group of pupils from St Christopher’s School in Bahrain and the British School of Bahrain (BSB) who took part in the largest-ever World Scholar’s Cup event held in Singapore.
Ali, 15, who lives in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and commutes across the causeway to St Christopher’s Isa Town campus each day during term-time, said: “I was very surprised and uplifted to be declared top student. It felt great to be recognised for producing good work in a tournament which attracted thousands of pupils.
“I won a number of trophies and medals which I unfortunately could not pick up as we had to leave early to catch our flight!”
He was declared ‘top student’ by the judges of the competition in a panel which included Daniel Berdichevsky, a highly-acclaimed scholar in the US who maintains one of the highest scores ever in the history of the US academic decathlon, an annual high school competition, of 9,297 points, as well as being the producer of theoretical works studied in universities, including the acclaimed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Berdichevsky, 37, also known as ‘Demi-Dec Dan’ and ‘the Alpaca-in-Chief’, is a noted figure in international education, the application of online social networks and in the design of persuasive technologies. He is also the founder of DemiDec, a corporation that provides study materials for the Academic Decathlon and annually hosts the World Scholar’s Cup.
The latest contest held in June attracted more than 2,400 students from 40 different nations and involved debating and answering a variety of questions on the theme of ‘The World Within’.
The St Christopher’s School teams featuring Ali, alongside Hesham Albaharna and Ahmed Abdulhameed, were victorious in one of the four competition categories, writing essays on topics such as the problems of video surveillance and the ethics of using performance-enhancing drugs.
His team performed with great determination and success in the debating competition as well, achieving sixth place together, and Ali scooped a further award of third place individually.
Three Year 8 students – Ingrid Bahnemann, Alex Kehoe and Alex Panagis – from the BSB also managed to clinch a place in the Tournament of Champions to be held at a prestigious Ivy League university later this year.
Ali said: “We went beyond our expectations, especially when considering that we were competing against highly-acclaimed scholars from as far afield as China and the US. We wanted to prove that there is great scholarly potential in the Middle East.”
Ali continued: “I came to be a part of the Singapore event through St Christopher’s which has provided me with many new opportunities and it was very open to the idea of being a part of the World Scholar’s Cup community which it invited to Bahrain and hosted its first-ever round of the tournament.
“The school also opened its arms to the competition by hosting the first-ever regional round which featured many schools from Bahrain, as a cause of this, and many mentions of the tournament by teachers and the competition’s highly-regarded reputation, it was something I knew I had to be a part of.”
Ali, who was born of Iraqi descent in the English borough of Bromley, in South East London, is also a promising actor and footballer. His parents, Ban and Kian Al-Saffar, also have a daughter, Lina, 14.
They are delighted with his success. Proud dad Mr Al-Saffar, a lead project engineer at Saudi Aramco, said: “He is always thirsty for knowledge. If he concentrates on a certain task, believe me he will do it!”
Respect is mutual, as Ali explained: “Our parents have been working tirelessly supporting us and have been very much involved.”
Ali has been a pupil at the Isa Town campus for a year and starts in Year 11 in September. His team, along with another St Christopher’s outfit featuring Anish Vishkawoti, Shawn Amirthan and Harsh Ainapure, have now qualified for the next World Scholar’s Cup competition, which will take place at Yale University in the US in November.
He added: “We are looking forward to the experience as a whole and finding out where our debating skills place us in the world.”
Ali hopes to one day carve out a career in petroleum engineering. He explained: “The reason for this is because petroleum fuels the world and with no clear end in sight to its production it is a secure future prospect.
“Furthermore, I would love to be a part of the engineering community and help with innovations which hopefully lead to more efficient technology, and perhaps develop substitutes to hydrocarbons which will make the world greener.”
During the school summer holidays Ali and all the teams have Yale on their minds and know how important studying, practicing and finding a sponsor will be to their future success.
“In Yale we will be up against the very best and I hope to show that the Middle East has high standards when it comes to competing in academic tournaments. Although it will take a lot of preparation I am confident the team can produce good results in Yale.
“We hope to represent Bahrain as best we can. We are putting in a lot of hard work into studying and practicing our debating techniques and essay-writing, as well as trying to find someone to sponsor our team for the next trip. I am sure Bahrain is full of reputed companies who may be able to assist us.”
* Editor’s note: if you would like to help sponsor the teams send your details to editor@gulfweekly.com and we will pass them on to the schools.
