Essay Contest Stimulates Creative Thinking
By Kim Jae-kyoung
Staff Reporter
The Korea Times held a prize-awarding ceremony Tuesday for its fourth English Economic Essay Contest, which was designed to encourage university students to think about the role of economy and finance in daily life.
In the ceremony held at Seoul Plaza Hotel in downtown Seoul Tuesday, Korea Times President Park Moo-jong said, ``I'm very pleased that so many students around the world participated in the essay contest and showed their creative thinking.''
``The competition is gaining popularity year by year since it was launched four years ago. I expect more entries in next year's contest,'' he added.
This year, a total of 1,007 students from 27 countries participated in the competition sponsored by Woori Bank on the occasion of the 58th anniversary of The Korea Times, which fell on Nov.1.
In attendance were President Park, Woori Bank CEO Lee Chong-hwi, Grand Award Winner Lee Dong-joon, a student of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and other prizewinners. Pin-Quan Ng, a Singaporean Columbia University student won the Grand Prize for foreign students. The Runner-Up Prize went to Yang So-mang of Yonsei University. Commendation Awards were given to Kim Soo-min of Ewha Womans University, and Euphracia Ndinda Musyoki, a Kenyan student of the Kangwon National University majoring in new materials science.
At the ceremony, six prize winners, including Grand Award Winner Lee, said that the competition gave them a great opportunity to get a better understanding of the role of the economy and finance in modern society
The screening committee said that all of the entrants produced excellent work but essays with clarity, brevity and originality were given higher marks. In particular, those based on personal experience and creative thinking were given special consideration.
``The task of the judges of the economic essay contest becomes more difficult. It is not just that there are more entries being submitted. The quality of the best entries was so high that it was very difficult to distinguish between them,'' Korea Times Executive Managing Editor Lee Chang-sup said.