A HSD pupil is bound for the United States after winning a major American writing competition!
Ruby McIntee, F6, has been announced as the winner of the 2024 JFK Presidential Library and Museum Profiles in Courage essay contest, a prestigious annual competition open to all 14 to 18-year-old US high school students and US citizens attending schools overseas.
Ruby is the first to win the competition while studying outside of the United States!
As a result she will soon be jetting off on an all-expenses paid trip to the awards ceremony at the Boston facility, where as well as being presented with the honour, she will also receive an amazing prize of $10k!
Ruby’s family plan to put the money towards her university education, which will begin after the summer.
This year’s contest challenged entrants to describe and analyse an act of political courage by a US elected official who served during or after 1917, the year John F Kennedy was born.
With a requirement to include an analysis of the obstacles, risks, and consequences associated with the act, the competition called on students to display a real understanding of the meaning of political courage.
The organisers received over 2,300 essays from students in fifty states and fifteen countries, but it was Ruby’s entry, on the former socialist leader of East Harlem, Vito Marcantonio, that was judged to be the best.
Ruby’s English teacher, Head of English Mandy Tevendale, said, “Ruby is an immensely talented writer and one of the editors of our school newspaper, The Columns. We are incredibly proud of her achievements and love reading her unique perspective on the world.”
In recognition of Mandy’s role in nominating Ruby and supporting her entry, the School will also receive the John F Kennedy Public Service Grant of $500 to be spent on school projects encouraging student leadership and civic engagement. The money will be used to help foster our young journalists, who Ruby has been helping to mentor. Dr Morris, representing the school, will also travel to Boston to receive this grant as a guest of the JFK Library and Museum.
You can read Ruby’s essay and find out more about the competition and the JFK Presidential Library and Museum itself at: https://www.jfklibrary.org/
