VietNamNet Bridge – On July 29, the 60 students, three of whom are Vietnamese, selected as winners of the 2016 Many Languages, One World® international essay contest had their voices heard at the UN General Assembly.

Tu Minh Ngoc, a Vietnamese student at the Texas Christian University in the US.

This is the third year ELS Educational Services Inc. and United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) have partnered to organize the Many Languages, One World® contest, said UNAI in making the announcement. 

The Vietnamese winners are Ngo Thi Nham and Le Thi Kim Ngan from Tomsk Polytechnic University in Russia and Tu Minh Ngoc, a student at the Texas Christian University in the US.

The winners, who had been unveiled earlier this month, are now attending the Many Languages, One World Global Youth Forum at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

The event includes an all-expense-paid trip to New York City and the opportunity to speak at the UN General Assembly. At the event, students presented their action plans related to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Many Languages, One World contest challenged college and university students around the globe to write an essay examining global citizenship, cultural understanding and the role that multilingualism can play in fostering both.

Entrants submitted essays in one of the six official United Nations languages, which could be neither the student’s first language nor his/her primary language of instruction, said UNAI.

More than 9,000 individuals from 165 countries took part in the initial phase of the contest. The official languages of the United Nations are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The 60 winners were selected from a pool of over 3,600 entrants.

Source: VOV