Queen Camilla stands with (from left) Queen's Commonwealth Essacy competition Junior runner-up Victor Austin Kiyaga from Uganda, Junior winner Erynn Liew from Malaysia, Senior runner-up Cristabelle Yeo from Singapore and Senior winner Evangeline Khoo from Malaysia during a reception for the at Buckingham Palace in London on Thursday (Nov 21). - Photo via Reuters
PETALING JAYA: The winners and runners-up of the 2024 Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition (QCEC) in the Senior and Junior categories met Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom in Buckingham Palace on Thursday (Nov 21) to receive their certificates.
Malaysian teens Evangeline Khoo Ke Ying, 15, and Erynn Liew, 13, won the Senior and Junior categories, respectively, beating out a record 34,939 entries from throughout the Commonwealth.
Queen Camilla hosted the champions and runners-up at Buckingham Palace, where she personally presented them with their certificates.
While congratulating the winners, she said: “There is only one word to describe you all, but I might need some help from King Charles to say it correctly — you are truly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
Evangeline, a student at SMK Menjalara, submitted a short story titled Ungrowing Growth.
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Her story highlighted issues surrounding human greed and the environmental impact of single-use plastics.
Erynn’s winning piece was titled The Indian Ocean Queen's Troubles, where the Tzu Chi International School student featured talking sea creatures who lamented their plight, including overfishing, climate change and plastic pollution.
Erynn had previously won the Gold Finalist Award in 2021 and Gold Awards in 2022 and 2023 for the same competition.
The winners and runners-up attended Winner’s Week in the United Kingdom from Nov 18 to 21.
The 2024 Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition received a total of 34,939 submissions from across all Commonwealth regions. It is also the world’s oldest international schools’ writing competition.
