Congratulations to Year 2 student, Camilla, who took part in the prestigious John Locke Institute Essay Competition over the summer break and was shortlisted for a prize.
The John Locke essay competition encourages young people to cultivate characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis, and creative style. The competition invites students to explore a range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the school curriculum.
Camilla, who is currently studying A-levels in Politics, Law, and Textiles, found out about the competition from her Politics lecturer, who encouraged her and her classmates to consider entering.
Entrants had to choose between three essay questions from the following categories: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology, and Law. Camilla was most intrigued by the Economics category, and her essay answered the question “Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?”.
Camilla spent two weeks conducting research, and a weekend writing her essay. She was able to utilise skills she is consistently practicing in her Politics classes, such as structuring a balanced argument, to aid the writing process.
A month after submitting her essay, Camilla received an email letting her know that her essay had been shortlisted for a prize by the panel of judges, made up of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton.
“I was quite surprised when I found out I had been shortlisted”, said Camilla, “I wasn’t expecting it because it was an international competition so there would have been so many entries. It was quite nice to get the email during my holiday to Greece as well!”
Camilla was recently invited to an awards ceremony in London, along with other shortlisted entrants. Before the awards ceremony and dinner, there was the opportunity to attend a conference, and lectures delivered by professors from Oxford and Cambridge.
Reflecting on the experience, Camilla said “I am really glad I entered the competition. At first, I debated whether to go for it and take on the extra work alongside my A-levels, but ultimately, I knew I wanted to do it. It was a great experience, and I particularly enjoyed meeting people from other countries such as China and the USA at the awards ceremony.”
Fiona Templeton, Camilla’s Politics lecturer, said “Camilla is an exceptionally hard-working student, who epitomises outstanding effort that we expect here at Cirencester College. I am immensely proud of her being shortlisted for such a prestigious essay competition and this is a testament to her intellectual curiosity, an attribute which I have no doubt sill see her succeed in the future.”
For more information on this story please contact chloe.suter@cirencester.ac.uk
