Four Spartans Win Gold in National Chinese Essay Competition

St. Stephen’s is pleased to recognize the four Chinese language students who received Gold Awards in the 18th Annual National Chinese Essay Contest. The contest is sponsored by the Chinese Language Association of Secondary Schools (CLASS). For the 2021 contest, the assigned essay topic was “Life After the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

All four St. Stephen’s students who entered the contest participated in the non-heritage speakers of Chinese category; their essays were to include up to 540 Chinese characters. Twelfth graders Devon Bell, Kate Kayden and Sydney Rawie competed in the intermediate level division, and 11th grader Anna Kavanagh competed in the advanced level division.

Students’ approaches to the assigned essay topic varied greatly, but were all personal in nature. Devon Bell wrote about wanting to visit her grandmother during the pandemic. Kate Kaydan wrote about how her home life has changed during the pandemic. Sydney Rawie wrote about missing traveling during the pandemic. Finally, Anna Kavanagh wrote about the impact COVID-19 has had on her friends and family. All four were awarded gold prizes from the judges, who are CLASS teachers or board members. Prizes included gold, silver and honor mention awards.
 
The gold-winning students are enrolled in either Mandarin Chinese V or Independent Studies with Chinese language instructor Hai Zheng Olefsky, associate director of the International Program.

Recent alumni winners of the Gold Award in the National Chinese Essay Contest include McKenna Potter ’19, Harry Sage ’18 and Kisara Moore ’17.

Pictured left to right: Anna Kavanagh, Sydney Rawie, Devon Bell and Kate Kadyan