Johor girl to meet Queen Camilla at Buckingham Palace

PETALING JAYA: The biggest highlight of 15-year-old Kong Yong Sin's year is less than a week away.

This Sunday (Nov 12), the SMK Tinggi Kluang, Johor student will board a flight to the United Kingdom, where she will meet Queen Camilla at Buckingham Palace on Thursday (Nov 16).

The much-anticipated trip is her reward for being runner-up of the senior category of the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition (QCEC) 2023.

While a number of awards were given for both the senior (ages 14-18) and junior (under 14) categories, only a winner and a runner-up were named for each category.

The cream of the crop will enjoy a “winners’ week" and will be hosted at a special awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The winners of both categories, as well as the junior runner-up, are from India.

Their entries stood out from a record-breaking 34,924 received from all Commonwealth regions.

Yong Sin, a participant of The Star’s BRATs Young Journalist Programme, was in disbelief when the announcement of the top four winners was made via a recent video call.

ALSO READ: Essay wins teen ticket to the UK

On her win and upcoming trip, she told The Star that “it’s all still pretty overwhelming”.

In her entry, she tackled the question “Does age matter?” with a short story titled “Observations made at a Local Kopitiam, 13th of March, 2023”.

Open to all Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and below, the QCEC, hosted by the UK-based Royal Commonwealth Society, is the world’s oldest international writing competition for schools.

Each year, it welcomes participants to write on a theme that stems from the Commonwealth’s values and principles, while at the same time working towards developing key literacy skills and fostering an empathetic and open-minded world view.

This year’s theme was “A Youth-Led Commonwealth”, challenging participants to explore the power young people hold within the global community and to consider how this power can be harnessed to make a meaningful impact on the world.

Applications for the 2024 edition of The Star’s BRATs Young Journalist Programme are now open. For details, go to facebook.com/niebrats.