Amritsar girl makes it to global essay competition

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 17

Zyna Dhillon, a Class X student from Mount Litera School, has been shortlisted for the prestigious John Locke Institute Essay Competition that received over 4,000 submissions from 101 countries this year.

The competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum, across various subjects. Zyna penned down an essay in the History Category, on the subject “Should we judge those from the past by the standards of today? How will historians in the future judge us?”, has been invited to the University of Oxford in September for an academic conference.

The 15-year-old said she is looking forward to meet other shortlisted candidates and academicians. Passionate about writing, Zyna said she has made it a part of her routine. “I have always been into writing and I want to explore different genres of writing. I attended summer programmes on creative writing and language skills by John Hopkins Centre for talented Youth. It’s something I love and I wanted to explore my skills while also using it as a tool for expressing my opinions on matter I consider important,” she said. Apart from writing, Zyna finds debating as therapeutic. “All throughout the lockdown, I kept myself busy doing what I loved. I did a lot of research for my essay for the John Locke competition, reading about world history and the ethical and moral grounds that changed through over the years. In my essay, I have talked about how racism or casteism, that was considered acceptable in early 18th and 19 centuries, cannot be judged on the same parameters today. I have mentioned several recent incidents like 1984 riots to analyse how changing social structure, circumstances and human behaviour effect the sense of right and wrong in a given time period,” she explained. Touching upon complex subjects and talking about things that need mention, Zyna believes that if you have an opinion, share it. As for now, the teenager who loves basketball among other things wants to pursue medicine.