This year's essay competition has now closed! This year's winner Faustus Bolitchenko received the main prize – 150 Euro. He is 17 years old and goes to school at the Pärnu Sütevaka Humanitaargümnaasium. 17-year-old Ilja Tomkovičs from the 1st State Gymnasium of Riga came in 2nd place and won a prize of 100 Euro, and Maike Meltsas from the Tallinn German Gymnasium came in 3rd place and won a prize of 50 Euro. This year's topic was "The Baltic States in Europe – past, present and future".
The winner Faustus Bolitchenko on why he decided to take part in the competition: "I have had a special connection to Germany, which is why I started learning German. I did this mostly by myself as I only learnt German at school for one year. My knowledge of German is mostly from practicing during the time I spent in Germany. I avoided speaking only in English there. Possibly the reason for my longing for Germany and German as a language is the fact that it surprised me how many similar or even the same words exist in both Estonian and German. The cultural similarities also had a positive effect on my learning, but of course I'm also interested in the differences and the unique aspects of German culture.I decided to take part because I like writing and the topic affects me personally. It was about the Baltics, the Baltic part of Europe. This topic is important to me as well as to other people and I saw the opportunity to express my thoughts on it. I wish that the size of our countries does not diminish recognition and knowledge of us".
Young people from the three Baltic states offer an interesting and broad vision of the future of our world and how they feel as young people in Europe. That was why we were incredibly pleased to welcome our participants to the home of the oldest Latvian organization – the Riga Latvian Society, where the 10 best participants were recognized by Beate Kirch, Cultural Attaché of the German Embassy in Riga, Anita Jonasta, Chair of the Latvian German Teachers' Association and Andris Gobiņš, President of the European movement in Latvia, in the wonderful Ligo hall. The message of all three guests? Turn thoughts into actions! We thank all our jury members – the three German Teachers' Associations in the Baltic states, the European Latvian Youth Association, the Baltic-German Youth and Student Ring and of course the German Embassy in Riga for their support!
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