A team from Sierra High spent part of the past summer in Europe.

Led by sophomore Miles Lima, the 11-member local group qualified for the World Scholar’s Cup Global Round in Ljubljana, Slovenia on July 11 through 16.

Lima finished the event by ranking second overall, individually. His team finished ranked eighth.

“We brought home over 70 medals and some massive trophies across the entirety of the delegation,” said Lima, who also competed in last year’s World Scholar’s Cup global round in Stockholm, Sweden.

Rather than traditional academic competitions and conferences, the World Scholar’s Cup differs by celebrating the joy of learning as well as an enrichment opportunity to motivate students to not just demonstrate their existing strengths but to discover new ones.

SHS took 31 students to the regional round in San Rafael in April with every participant from the team qualifying for the second level, according to Lima, who finished first overall scholar coupled with the third highest test score in the history of the competition.

“Of those 31, 11 of us went to Ljubljana to participate in the global round,” he said.

Lima added, “We attempted to fundraise for the journey, but we were unsuccessful, and paid for the whole thing out of pocket.”

In addition, the 11 from Sierra qualified and will be attending the championship event in November in New Haven.

They’ll continue their fundraising efforts.

The World Scholar’s Cup was founded in 2007 as a small regional tournament at the Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies.

Since then, the World Scholar’s Cup has grown to include tens of thousands of students, representing dozens of countries.