Engaged young writers rewarded

BALLARAT High School year nine student Audrey English has been awarded first prize in the ABC Friends Ballarat essay competition.

Responding to the prompt of whether ‘a public broadcaster is essential in a democracy,’ Audrey was presented with a certificate and $300 for her 800-word argument.

Woodmans Hill Secondary College year 9 student Molly Fredericks placed second, St Patrick’s College year 12 pupil Benjamin Maxwell Nash was awarded third place, and an honourable mention was given to Mount Rowan Secondary College year 9 student Molly Coyle.

Amidst his final few challenging months of VCE, Benjamin decided to enter the competition as he’d never had the opportunity to showcase his writing, or have an essay judged.

“I thought it would be a really good experience to further develop my writing skills and experiment with what I could do,” he said.

“In our modern environment, politics, and how the media’s connected to that, has become more important than ever.

“After school, I’ve been looking at doing a double degree of arts and law, and I thought the essay prompt related to that well, and would be fun to explore.”

Knowing that young people are engaging with the issues surrounding public broadcasting and democracy, ABC Friends Ballarat’s David MacPhail has a “sense of hope.”

“We were so impressed they could grapple with these ideas, reflect on them, and their own position. One person said they were aware of their own bias in exploring the issue,” he said.

“These young people are at a level years ahead of what I was at that age. It’s very impressive and I really feel they can do good things. We need to support them.”