UniSey rewards poetry competition winners |04 July 2020

Group photo of judges, winners, school representatives and UniSey officials

Students who took part in a poetry competition organised by the University of Seychelles to commemorate World Poetry Day on March 21, have been rewarded.

The lucky winners received their prizes yesterday during a short ceremony held at the University of Seychelles’ Anse Royale campus.

The star prize went to Stephen Figaro of the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA) with his poem entitled ‘Lazar’ which impressed the judges the most and stood out from the rest.

Selly Robert, from the Seychelles Institute of Arts and Design (SIAD) with her poem titled ‘Women’ took home first prize.

The second prize went to Shanah Jouanneau from the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (Site) with her work entitled ‘Forever in our hearts’, while in third position was Elia Savy of Ecole Française des Seychelles, with ‘Poetry, listen to me’.

Organised in collaboration with Bling Bling Poetry Association and Alliance Française, the poetry competition saw the participation of students from different professional centres, namely School of Advanced Level Studies (Sals), Seychelles Business Studies Academy (SBSA), Site, UniSey, Ecole Française, STA, National Institute of Health and Social Studies (NIHSS) and SIAD.

The prizes were sponsored by UniSey, the languages and media department of UniSey, members of Bling Bling Poetry Association and Alliance Française.

There were also two special prizes for two poems that did not make it to the final but which impressed the judges nonetheless, especially in regards to the message being conveyed. Those went out to Abinaya Pillay from Sals with her poem ‘Give and take’, and Jayden Damien Noël also from Sals with his poem ‘Enslaved by drugs’.

In addition to the six winners, the University of Seychelles also awarded all those who took part in the competition with a certificate.

At the end of the presentation, the winners were able to recite their poems for guests and colleagues to appreciate.

“The huge amount of support and turnout is an encouragement for us to continue this competition,” said the head of languages and media department, Annie Laurette.

She added that poetry is not only a tool to develop language skills but it also gives you an outlet to express yourself.

In total 49 students took part in the competition bringing over 33 entries in English, six in French and 10 in Creole.

Christophe Zialor