2020 YOUTH WRITES AWARDS

THE GLOBAL GENEVA 2020 YOUTH WRITES AWARDS

A call for stories by High School students worldwide.

Edward Girardet Editor Global Geneva

To the chagrin of both parents and teachers, high school graduates are increasingly entering university and even grad schools unable to write properly. Business leaders are voicing similar complaints. A group of veteran foreign correspondents based in different parts of the world last year launched ‘Youth Writes’ in a bid to help young people not only improve their writing skills, but to counter cyber abuse by becoming more discerning about what is credible – and what is not – in social media.

They are now seeking entries for the 2020 Youth Writes Awards from high school students worldwide. Its director, Edward Girardet, an award-winning journalist and author, explores why good writing is so important for young people as a critical tool for life, but also why the Coronavirus crisis could provide some positive learning opportunities this summer.

Years ago, as an aspiring writer just out of university, I received my first job as a cub reporter working for United Press International, a U.S. news agency. I quickly learned that the luxuries of procrastination no longer existed. You had to get the story out and within minutes rather than hours. On my first day on the job in Brussels, I found a curt note splayed across my typewriter. “Go cover European communist party conference. If you fail, you’re fired!”

For the next three days, I turned up diligently at the conference to report. There was no other journalist present. It was only during the final hours that the British, American and other international ‘hacks’ rolled in, pulling out their notebooks and questioning me – and few French or Italian party officials - about what had transpired. And then, before retreating to a nearby bar, they called in their stories by phone with a deftness and sense of authority that could only stupefy me. Somehow, they had pulled together all the relevant points configured in stories that not only read well but incorporated an element of insight which would probably serve historians for years to come.

As for me, I returned glumly to my office. For the next two hours, I struggled to pull together a couple of paragraphs summing up what I had so assiduously covered. But I simply couldn’t write. My journalism career was a failure before I had even begun. Finally, my editor sauntered over. He ripped out my story from the typewriter with a searing glare of contempt.

“What the hell are you writing?” he asked, holding up my paper between his thumb and forefinger as if just removed from the loo. “Well,” I began. “What I’m trying to say is…”

He did not let me finish. Instead, he scrawled with his pencil in large threatening letters at the bottom of the page. “THEN SAY IT!”

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW – AND WHAT YOUR READERS NEED TO KNOW

This was my first lesson in practical journalism – and writing. Don’t just write what you know, but what you think readers need to know. While this particular editor proved a despicable ogre to many in the newsroom, he was a godsend as an on-the-job writing teacher. All his comments were to the point and relevant. I not only learned how to report and observe, but also to write to deadline – and anywhere. Today, I have no problem sitting down in the middle of a traffic jam or in a trench with mortars falling nearby, and then write as if locked away in a Tibetan monastery. Nothing distracts me except my need to tell a story.

The point is that anyone can learn to write. And everyone, no matter whether lawyer, engineer, scientist, civil servant, teacher, entrepreneur or high school student, needs to know how to write clearly and persuasively; in other words, to tell a story. It does not matter whether you are putting together a legal assessment, business or NGO project proposal, background paper, government policy brief or a school essay. If you can’t put across your ‘story’ in a manner that is accessible, then no one will be bothered. You will have lost your audience, and maybe even your job.

THE 2020 YOUTH WRITES AWARDS: RESPONDING TO A NEED TO ENGAGE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This is where the Youth Writes initiative comes in. High school is precisely the place where young people need to start honing their writing (and reading) skills, a process that may often seem a desperate challenge at first, but one that can prove satisfying, even enjoyable. And given the current Coronavirus situation with so many young people stuck at home, what better way to spend one’s time writing an article or short story for the 2020 Youth Writes Awards?

The rules are simple. Fact or fiction, each piece cannot be no more than 1,000 words. It also and needs to focus in one way or another on any of the Sustainable Development Goals or a an “international Geneva” theme, such as human rights, climate change, refugees, migrants, health, world trade, conservation and environment…Open to high school students worldwide, this not only offers the chance to win a travel grant worth 1,200, 750 or 500 CHF/USD, but also to get published alongside professional writers in Global Geneva magazine. (Closing date: 15 June, 2020)

THE YOUTH WRITES SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS AWARD

We have also created a special Coronavirus Award (500 CHF/USD) for the best personal story on coping with Covid-19. Depending on quality, we will be publishing

the best of these on an ongoing basis in our online Youth Writes section, but the award itself will be announced in fall, 2020. Recommended length: 700-1000 words. (Closing date: 15 September, 2020). We will be publishing (and paying100 CHF/USD) for any good quality youth story that we publish over the next five or six months.

Students can offer their own perspectives, such as a story based on one’s own experience, but we want originality and will be looking at how credible their information is. We want them to do the appropriate research to learn more about their subjects. We have no problem with students sharing their drafts with teachers and parents, but the story should remain their own. A jury of editors and journalists from around the world will judge the entries.

From our point of view, it is important to ‘read’ – and publish - the voices of young people, particularly at a time when so many crucial planetary issues can – and will - affect their futures: climate change, pandemics, wars, impact of Brexit on cross-border studying or jobs, refugees, migration… The list is long.

For an aspiring writer, there is nothing more exhilarating than to see one’s piece in print. My own first (very short) published story on local island snakes while living in the Bahamas at the age of 12 appeared in Animals, a Londonbased magazine which featured articles by some of the world’s top wildlife specialists. I was elated. Later, I edited and wrote for school magazines. Eventually, at 19, I won second prize in a British student journalism competition with my piece about a full moon feast in Nepal published by a British weekly. Such achievements are not only great for the creative soul, but for one’s CV.

Depending on how many quality entries we receive, we also plan to publish a special Global Geneva print and e-edition. Just imagine an array of 20-25 imaginative if not unique stories written by high school students from Liberia to Singapore and Mexico! Depending on funding, we would then seek to distribute complimentary copies to all participating schools. Several sponsors, for example, are already interested in helping to make copies available to international schools in Thailand and Singapore.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

So this is where we can help. As part of a global network of over 2,000 editors, reporters, cartoonists, film-makers and media specialists, we would like to share some of the

“tricks of the trade”. This includes not only helping young people dare to write stories that can make a difference, but to better understand the need for quality reporting in the public interest. If properly supported, good journalism can stand out as one of the most effective means for countering cyber abuse, false news and deliberation disinformation, now considered by The Economist, World Economic Forum and other leading international analytical institutions to be one of the world’s gravest threats. Now more than ever, young people need to learn how to discern what is a credible – and what is not – in social media.

As a non-profit initiative, Youth Writes was first launched in early 2019 only in Switzerland with a focus primarily on international schools. Despite only receiving just over 40 entries for the 2019 Youth Writes Awards, their quality proved exceptional. Furthermore, the publishing of the top three in Global Geneva magazine coupled with the presentation of the awards at the Morges Book Festival overlooking Lake Geneva last September has provoked considerable interest. We are now receiving queries by students, parents and schools from different parts of the world.

While the Coronavirus situation has disrupted plans for the development of journalism and writing workshops in locations such as Basel, Brussels, Nairobi and Bangkok, it has also prompted more out-of-the-box thinking. We are now in the process of developing a series of online initiatives, including short videos introducing students to different aspects of story-telling. We are also looking into the possibility of an interactive writing project as part of an online ‘summer camp’ for students. Finally, we are working with an Edinburgh-based company for a Youth Writes component that will help put both high school and university students in touch with UN agencies, NGOs, companies and other institutions willing to offer paid or unpaid internships and volunteerships. If funded, some of our own writing projects this year will involve the participation of high school and university students as reporting interns.

For more information, please go to the Global Geneva www.global-geneva.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edward Girardet is a foreign correspondent and author who has reported humanitarian crises, wars and development issues across the globe for nearly 40 years. Based between Geneva and Bangkok, he is the author/ editor of at least half a dozen books, including Killing the Cranes – A Reporter’s Journey through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan. He is editor of Global Geneva, a Dublin-incorporated magazine, and director of Youth Writes, a Geneva-based non-profit journalism-cumeducational initiative. www.global-geneva.com