Student wins United Nations contest
Maria Jose Ramirez Cañas has been selected as one of 60 winners of the United Nations 2016 Many Languages, One World essay contest.
She will participate in the Many Languages, One World Global Youth Forum from 25-31 July, 2016 in New York.
Maria, a PhD student from Chile, was selected from a pool of over 3,500 participants, from 165 countries.
Global citizenship
The Many Languages, One World Class of 2016 includes students from 36 countries, studying at 53 universities across the globe.
The event was created to bring global-minded young scholars from all over the world together to engage in dialogue about global issues and initiatives that could be carried back to their universities and institutions.
Multilingual ability
To participate, students had to write an original essay exploring how multilingual ability advances global citizenship and understanding.
The essay had to reflect the entrant’s academic, cultural and national context.
Entries had to be in an official language of the United Nations – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish – that was neither their first language nor the principal language of instruction during their primary or secondary education.
“I am delighted to be selected for the One World event – when I applied I knew it was a long shot, but I had more chances to win if at least submitted my essay. So I decided to try it anyway. I am really happy and honoured to represent my home country of Chile and Tte University of Edinburgh and very interested to learn from all of the other participants.”