Essay contest boosts interest in G20 summit
By Kim Da-ye
The Korea Times held an awarding ceremony Thursday for the Sixth English Economic Essay Contest at the Westin Chosun Hotel in downtown Seoul. The annual contest is sponsored by Woori Bank.
The winners were selected from a total of over 1,300 entries on the subject of Korea’s role in the G20 Seoul Summit and in representing non-G20 countries at the summit.
Two Grand Prizes went to Lee Ye-won, an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Ivana Tomankova, the daughter of a former Czech diplomat to Seoul.
Lee’s winning essay was titled “Korea’s role in the international order,” while Tomankova wrote one, titled, “South Korea to defend the right to its ‘own’ development.”
Lee Bo-hyun, Lee’s father received the award for his daughter, who is preparing for an exam in Toronto. A plaque and a laptop for a prize was also given. Olsa Jaroslav Jr., ambassador of the Czech Republic to Korea, joined the ceremony to receive the award for Tomankova, Jaroslav knows Tomankova’s mother who was his former assistant.
“It was a great surprise. Tomankova is a common name in the Czech Republic, so when I saw her essay in the newspaper, I didn’t know it was her. I then received a call from her mother asking to receive the award on her behalf,” said Jaroslav, proudly adding that the University of Economics in Prague where Tomankova studies has recently been chosen as the best economics university in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Runner-Up Award was given to Adelide Kamanthe Mutinda, a Kenyan student working for her master’s at KDI School of Public Policy and Management. Mutinda who speaks and writes Korean fluently submitted an essay titled “Seoul should represent both G20 and non G20 countries.” She was awarded with a laptop.
Commendation Awards went to Moon Joo-won from Korea University; Vadim Piatov, a foreign student studying at Seoul National University and Evert Jan Gerhardus Jacobsen who studies at the Maasticht University in the Netherlands. Moon and Vadim received round-trip tickets to Jeju Island, while Jacobsen who had studied briefly at Sungkyunkwan University picked up the cash prize.
Woori Bank Deputy President Lee Soon-woo attended the ceremony in lieu of the bank’s CEO Lee Chong-hwi, who was not available because of his prior engagement in China. The deputy president said, “I, first of all, congratulate the winners.”
This year’s competition was one of the most intense essay contests. “The standard is much better than the last year, and so we had great difficulty in choosing the eventual winners,” said Chris Price who was one of the judges screening the 80 finalists.
The winning essays were published in the Oct. 19 edition of The Korea Times.