And the good news just keeps comin’. Seems like it’s working out to be a pretty good year for Singapore, what with all the wins by local talents. Yesterday, two Singaporean students received the top two awards for their age category in The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition at Buckingham Palace in London.
The two 14-year-olds, Gauri Kumar and Tan Wan Gee, were awarded the certificates for junior winner and junior runner-up respectively from the Duchess of Cornwall on behalf of Queen Elizabeth. Both were 13 when they handed in their submissions for the under-14 junior category of the annual competition, which was set to the theme of ‘An Inclusive Commonwealth’.
Out of about 7,500 entries, the two essays by the young writers were selected by a judging panel. The girls were brought to London for Winners’ Week, where they embarked on cultural and educational activities, including a tour of Parliament.
Gauri’s untitled essay examined the struggles of reconciling different identities as a result of communication challenges due to language barriers, while Wan Gee wrote a poem called ‘Are We Really So Different?/Dear Santa’ in the form of letters to Santa Claus from various people, to champion equality for those who fall outside of society’s expectations.
