Isack Awala, a tutor at VGS ACADEMY in Oshikuku, emerged as a standout participant in an international essay competition last November when he ended in the top 20 out of 5 000 participants.
He seized the opportunity to showcase his fictional talents by participating in an essay competition hosted by Northeastern University of London.
Awala told Youth Corner that they were given essay topics across a broad range of technology, economics, social sciences and humanities, and it was open to talented and intellectually curious young writers and students who show passion in their field of study or subject.
His argumentative essay took him three to four weeks to complete.
The theme was ‘Politics and International Relations’, and his topic was ‘Is environmental degradation a greater threat to the international community than war?’
Awala said he is good in history, geopolitics and diplomacy, and this helped him to craft this essay by quoting past politicians and great environmental activists like Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, Wangari Maathai and many more. More interestingly, he used recent images from both Ukraine and Israel’s war on Gaza.
He added that this achievement has boosted his confidence, and motivated him to continue pursuing writing and becoming a politician.
“I am determined to explore new avenues, and improve my skills even further. So, I am really grateful for this opportunity and the recognition it has brought me.”
I love competition, and I thought it would be better if I compete on the world’s biggest stages. I believe I am one of the finest and sharpest writers of our time. I can present an argument and win it because I am articulate. I read a lot of wonderful books actually, and from these books, I learned to reason better. So, I wanted to influence, impact and inspire,” he beamed.
Awala’s challenge was not having enough time as he had a lot to do, but he generated ideas during the day and typed at night.
And like any other writer, he too had a problem generating ideas, supporting them with clear evidential points, linking ideas to the main idea of an essay, and planning and organising ideas into a coherent, flowing structure. But in the end, these problems were solved.
“I am a problem-solver,” he stated.
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