Essay Contest Promotes Youth Participation in the Summits

Essays written by seven students from different countries throughout the Americas were selected from among 55 competitors participating in the “Summit of the Americas Third Essay Contest”. The students were each awarded travel costs to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, to attend the Fifth Summit of the Americas and participate in the Young Americas Forum (YAF), organized by the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT), on April 15-16, 2009.

The essay winners, coming from Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America, wrote about the region’s challenges within the issues related to the Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain, the outcome document of the Fifth Summit (human prosperity, environmental sustainability, energy security, strengthening democratic governance and strengthening the Summits Process and follow-up). The winning essays were chosen by a Selection Committee comprised of professors and academics from recognized universities throughout the Hemisphere in coordination with this OAS Summits of the Americas Secretariat.

The initiative, developed within the framework of the Fifth Summit by the OAS Summits Secretariat in coordination with the National Secretariat for the Fifth Summit of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, aimed at encouraging undergraduate and graduate students from the 34 OAS Member States to focus on and analyze the themes addressed in the Fifth Summit, as well as to raise awareness of the Summits Process. In Port of Spain, the students had the opportunity to interact with other youth at the YAF and were honored at an Awards Ceremony. For further information and to read the prize-winning essays published in the four OAS languages, visit: http://www.summit-americas.org/cs_essay.html.

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