Pair of Students Excel in International Essay Competition
Two St. Michael’s College School (SMCS) students recently made their mark on the international stage, placing in the top five per cent in the John Locke Institute’s Global Essay Competition. Brian Lee, Grade 11, and Arjun Sivakumar, Grade 12, received the High Commendation award among 100,227 entries across 183 countries. “When I found out that I had received a High Commendation, the first emotion I felt was relief,” says Lee. “That particular moment meant that my hard work had finally paid off and was proof to me that I was capable of doing great things as long as I put in the appropriate amount of effort. Now, this essay serves as a challenge; it is a standard that I must surpass.” For the competition, students had to choose a question from one of 10 subject categories and then submit their essays independently, with guidance from an academic referee. Essays were then judged by a panel of academics from universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Princeton. Vanessa Iaboni, an SMCS English teacher, taught both finalists in her AP English Language and Composition course. “Brian has had a strong start to AP English Language and Composition this year and is showing strong abilities in critical thinking and argumentation,” Iaboni says of Lee, one of her current students. “The course focuses on non-fiction texts and the art of rhetoric, and he is already showing signs of promise in his ability to inform, influence, and persuade an audience. Even when I taught him in Grade 9, Brian consistently performed well and was engaged in the variety of English texts students are exposed to in our English programme.” Iaboni also taught Sivakumar in the same course last year. “Arjun was an exceptional student in my AP English Language and Composition course and was consistently one of the strongest writers. He put
