About the contest
Ron Youngman, a retired builder, is an outstanding New Zealander. Over his lifetime he has invested heavily into educational and teacher training endeavors, both in New Zealand and in Papua New Guinea. He has also generously supported numerous charities working to strengthen society through support of families and mentoring and leadership development of young people.As a builder Ron has always looked for practical solutions to difficult problems. Over the last few years he has become increasingly concerned about the quality of ideas being embraced by New Zealand society and its leaders. So, in order to do something positive about his concerns, Ron started an essay contest in 2009 and it has become an annual event. The Youngman Essay Contest for Emerging Leaders is designed to encourage young people with leadership potential to articulate thoughts around New Zealand’s future, and address some of the key ideas behind government and social policy.
Essay entries for the 2010 contest are now being accepted and the closing date is 30 July 2010. Winners will be announced on Friday 20 August 2010.
1st prize – $1500
2nd prize – $500
3rd-5th prizes – $250 each
Essay question:
"... those who are forever emancipating themselves will never be free..." JGA Pocock, “The antipodean perception”, The Discovery of Islands (Cambridge University Press, 2005)New Zealand has often defined itself by contrast or comparison with other nations. Historically, we thought of ourselves as British and Maori and later as needing to distance ourselves from the Empire and our history of settlement. Similarly, despite originally being part of the colony of New South Wales, we have increasingly thought of ourselves in terms of our cultural distance from Australia, while desiring to match the recent economic success of our neighbour. With reference to our historical Maori and European roots, to what should we aspire as a nation and what kind of leadership do we need to get us there? What of our past narratives, social and cultural values should we hold to, and what should we seek to free ourselves from?
Rules and Regulations:
- Essays should be original works, all quotations referenced and include a bibliography.
- Essays may not exceed 2,500 words but may be less than 2,500 words. The word count does not include the references or bibliography.
- The contest is open to New Zealand citizens and permanent residents who are currently enrolled in study at a New Zealand tertiary or secondary education institution, or who have been enrolled in the past three years.
- Essays should be submitted as an MS Word document and emailed to Mary Hockey. Please include your full name and postal address, a contact telephone number, your email address, your essay word count, the name of the Institute at which you are (or were) enrolled, the qualification you are (or were) pursuing, the year in which you began studying and, if applicable, the year in which you completed your studies.
- Essays will be judged by Ron Youngman (Retired), Greg Fleming (Chairman of Compass Foundation) and Ash Taylor (Vice Principal – Operations of Laidlaw College).
- The winners of The Youngman Essay Contest for Emerging Leaders will be announced on Friday, 20 August 2010.
- The aim of this essay contest is the identification of emerging leaders with wisdom and vision, and the generation of ideas to be passed from the leaders of tomorrow to those currently in positions of leadership. As such, the winning essays may be distributed to people in leadership positions and published on websites or in magazines (with the permission of the author).
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