Students Win Essay Contest on 2005 "Summit of the Americas" Theme

By Eric Green, Washington File

Winners from Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, United States

Washington -- Five university students from the Western Hemisphere have won an essay contest focusing on the theme of the November 4-5 Summit of the Americas, "Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance."

The contest was designed to encourage young people to reflect on the region's challenges and develop concrete proposals to address them, said the Organization of American States (OAS), the contest organizer, in an October 21 statement.

The winners of the contest will receive an all-expenses-paid trip (airfare, hotels, and meals) to attend the summit, to be held in Mar del Plata, Argentina. President Bush and the leaders of the 33 other democratic nations in the Western Hemisphere will participate in the summit. (See Summit of the Americas.)

The OAS said 88 essays were submitted for the contest by students from 22 of the inter-American body's member countries.

The five winners were Sofia Donoso Knaudt, from the University of Chile; Lesley-Ann Dixon, from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica; Daniel Arturo Abreu Mejia, from the Catholic University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic; Xavier Flores Aguirre, from the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil in Ecuador; and Matthew Bird, from the University of Chicago in the United States.

Donoso wrote an essay titled "Creating Quality Work: An Opportunity to Reinforce Democratic Governance in Latin America." Dixon titled her essay "Lessons Based on Intra and Extra Regional Experiences." Abreu wrote an essay called "Honorable, Productive Employment to Confront Poverty and Inequality in Latin America." Flores called his essay "Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance." Bird wrote about "The Art of Harvesting Local Solutions to Shared Problems in the Americas."

The essays -- written in English and Spanish -- were judged based on a set of criteria, including structure, clear exposition, critical thinking and understanding of the subject matter.

The OAS had sponsored a similar essay contest for the Special Summit of the Americas, held in January 2004 in Monterrey, Mexico. The winners of that contest were from Mexico, Peru and the United States.

Additional information about the contest is available on the Summits of the Americas Secretariat Web site.

Source: U.S. Department of State

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