From left to right: Kishelle Auguste, Azoya Howell, Khadijah Halliday and Ariel Albert holding their awards.
Saint Lucian students delivered winning performances in the 2018 Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition with six attaining top awards when pitted against 12,000 of the world’s best student writers. Four of the six were on hand to receive their awards at a recognition ceremony hosted at Bay Gardens Hotel on January 9.
An appreciative audience was captivated by the videotaped recitals of Khadijah Halliday’s, Ariel Albert’s and Azoya Howell’s Gold Award prize-winning essays, before Kishelle Auguste stole hearts by doing a live reading of her Junior Silver award-winning entry.
Three of the awardees spoke to the STAR after the ceremony, each expressing joy at being able to earn such prestigious prizes. Gold Award winner in the Junior category, Azoya Howell, a student of the SDA Academy, stated: “I never thought I would get so far, particularly with the number of participants being so high.” Her fellow awardee in the Junior category, Kishelle Auguste, a student of the Dame Pearlette Louisy Primary School, declared her elation. “I worked really hard,” she said.
Saint Joseph’s Convent was well represented at the ceremony by students past and present, Khadijah Halliday and Ariel Albert. Halliday, who currently attends the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, enthused: “I don’t think it’s just about the awards. I think it’s very important for other young people because it will inspire others to enter competitions like this.”
Michelle Samuel, a junior judge of the competition who is based here in Saint Luica, when talking about the judging criteria, put the awardees’ achievement into perspective: “I know the judging rubric is very, very tight. It is difficult to make it to the top and these students made it to the top.” However, she also pointed out that Saint Lucia could do even better. “The students are not aware of this competition. Nobody is telling them about it. Nobody is informing them of this opportunity to use their literacy skills to improve themselves and to speak their minds about issues that concern and affect them.”
This sentiment is in line with that of Coral Fleming, Programmes Officer, Youth and Education of the Royal Commonwealth Society. “This is a fantastic achievement!” she said. She added that over the previous two years there had been only five Saint Lucian participants.
The whereabouts of the two Bronze awardees is not known but Michelle Samuel is planning on having another recognition ceremony for them once they’ve been located. She also took time out to thank The Entrepreneurship Readiness Program, Easy Click Books, The Trophy Centre Plus, Sa Nou Saint Lucia, the Saint Lucia Writers’ Forum, Calabash TV and SLUDTERA for sponsoring the event. The deadline for applications for the 2019 Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition is May 1.
