The winners of “The 3rd Macao-wide English Writing and Recital Contest” organised by the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) were announced during Saturday’s final round and subsequent award ceremony on its Ilha Verde campus.
This year’s poetry and recital contest was themed “Macao, The Garden of Life”, with the final round having students memorising and reciting the poems they had written in front of a panel of judges, according to a statement from the private Catholic university.
The statement noted that the winners of the elementary, secondary and university categories were, respectively, Chan Wan U from Santa Rosa de Lima (English Section); Kristel Shane Suclatan Callanta from Colégio Diocesano de São José 6, and USJ’s Alidoro Cabongo da Silva Chenda.
The first runners-up and second runners-up per category were also awarded during the ceremony. A total of nine cash prizes worth 19,000 patacas were presented, the statement said.
The statement added that over 500 submissions from 30 schools and universities were received this year, 46 of which were chosen for the recitation contest, the statement said. A total of 16 were from the primary school category, while the secondary and university categories each had 15 poems.
In his speech, USJ Vice-Rector Prof. Keith Morrison said: “Here we have had our contestants of many ages reaching out to new ideas, imagining things, being creative, and reaching out to us as well, and taking us out of, and beyond, our mundane, everyday lives”.
USJ English Centre Director Prof. Duncan Miers also remarked: “Overall, there has been a notable improvement in the compositions of the poems across the board this year, with some outstanding examples among them”.
The statement also revealed next year’s theme, “Mini me in a wide wide world”, with sub-categories to be announced in due course.
More details can be found on USJ’s website on https://www.usj.edu.mo/en/
This handout photo provided yesterday by the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) shows the three categories’ winners posing for a photo with fellow contestants, judges and others on USJ’s Auditório Centenário de Fátima on its Ilha Verde campus.
