Dear Fellow Bloggers, dear Commentators, dear Participants of the Essay Competition 2008,

Sooner or later it had to come to this: this is the last post on this blog.

Between February and July we have been talking to our readers on how the Essay Competition is designed, implemented, evaluated and disseminated, and exchanging views with them.

The blog, in its 5 months of existence, hosted 41 posts by 15 bloggers and more than 1430 comments.

On behalf of the organizers of the Essay Competition, we would like to thank all blog contributors for their input: comments, questions, suggestions and criticism. Your contributions will allow the Competition to develop further, to better serve its purpose.

You will hear from us again (by email) once the report of this year’s edition is released, and also when we announce the Essay Competition 2009. We hope that you will participate again!

Let me remind you that you can stay in touch with other Essay Competition participants thanks to the unofficial facebook group initiated by Nader.

Thank you again, and have a wonderful summer / winter (wherever you live)!

Anna

PS. This also means that in 24h, we’ll disable the comments on the blog. You can still contact us by email : info @ essaycompetition.org

Here is the link to the video of the award ceremony of the Essay Competition 2008, which took place in the closing session of the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) in Cape Town, South Africa on June 11.

You will see the 3 winners receive their diplomas from Mr. Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance of South Africa, and address the conference.

PS. You’ll need to have Real Player installed to see the video.

It took some time but I’ve finally managed to upload the pictures we have on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28845700@N06/sets/72157606313139467/detail/

Finalists, if you have some more, please put them there as well, and tag them EssayCompetition2008.

Cheers!

As finalists return home from Cape Town, the Essay Competition opens up a range of exciting opportunities for them. To name just a few:

An article appeared on “The Times of India”, Indian’s daily newspaper, presenting Pal’s and Menting’s ideas on transforming the city of Kolkata. Pal and Maria, winners from India and Colombia respectively, have been invited to attend the World Leadership Conference at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to be held in October, on the topic “What kind of world we want –the future generation speaks”.

Jonah, the Nigerian finalists, will participate in a one week leadership training organized by the Africa Leadership Forum. Jonah was also interviewed by the “Nigerian Tribune”, one of the major national newspapers in the country.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Essay Competition 2008 is now in its final phase, after the winners have been selected. Many of you have been impatiently waiting for one more thing we promised some time ago… the certificates!

Our policy is to reward every single effort that contributed to the Essay Competition, regardless of whether you are a finalist, one of the best 200 or best 20, or a participant.

We were working over the past days to prepare 3287 personal certificates, for every participant of the Essay Competition 2008. The certificate states that you have participated in the Essay Competition. It can be printed out and attached to your CV, school or job application etc.
NOTE: this is a certificate of participation, so it only states that you submitted an essay and NOT that you were a finalist or winner. Finalists and winners already received their hard copy certificates. Best 200 and best 20 authors also received special diplomas that confirm they were among the 200 or 20 best.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fortunately I might not be among the top winners but am extremely proud that I made it to the final top 8 among the 3,287 youths from over 145 countries that participated in the competition. I am proud that my essay was among the top rated ones in the finals. Am particularly proud to put Nigeria on the global scene and the cocoon that play host to me-I mean Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Luckily the ideas we proposed in our essays will be pushed to the mayors (governors) of our state for expedient implementation. The media will strongly be involved. I am a strong believer in the ideas I proposed, I only hope that states governments in Nigeria will get hold of them and give the much needed attention.

Read the rest of this entry »

Info and pictures have been added to the website here : http://www.essaycompetition.org/content08_61_1

Needless to say, I feel as if I am on the top of the world! I wanted to live this moment, if it ever happened, and now am living it. It is a very big honour and I feel, also a responsibility.

So what next?

Read the rest of this entry »

Salut à tous !

Je suis très très… heureux d’être finaliste de ce concours !
D’autant plus que je suis le seul francophone…

C’est un plaisir d’être à Cap Town et de pouvoir participer à cette grande rencontre internationale, la Conférence ABCDE. J’ai parle en votre nom a tous, vous qui rêvez d’un monde meilleur, vous qui luttez partout pour le progrès de l’homme, de tout l’homme !
Read the rest of this entry »

Here we are, the winners of the 2008 International Essay Competition have been anounced!

1st place winner: Saptarshi PAL, from India

2nd place winner: Mengting WANG, from China

3rd place winner: Maria Angelica RODRIGUEZ, from Colombia.

The jury was very impressed by the level of the finalists, and found the winners so close to each other that they’ve decided to modify the repartition of the monetary prices, so that there is less difference between the winners.

Congratulations once again to the winners and the other finalist!

More on this later…