Eleven incredibly brave students wrote an original story, created a children’s storybook, and performed the story to a panel of judges for SMAN 11 Padang’s WORDS Storytelling Competition.

The competition originally started with 33 participants, so this group of students is truly dedicated and hardworking to complete the entire process. ETA Sophia Lopresti and her co-teachers are so proud of their work!

Three judges from Padang city visited SMAN 11 Padang to evaluate the performances. At the end of the day, the final scores were revealed and the top students were announced. Third place was awarded to Fajri, who wrote a story encouraging others to be polite and moral through the example of two young men who consistently, and comically, make poor choices. The second place story, written by Ega, was about a young girl whose memory of her late mother inspires her to clean garbage from the beach.

The first place winner, Deo, shared his story about today’s youth that could be achieving great technological advancements, but are addicted to social media platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok instead. Deo will travel with ETA Sophia to meet students from all over Indonesia and compete in the National WORDS Storytelling Competition in April. Please wish him good luck!

Sophia Lopresti is currently teaching at SMAN 11 Padang, West Sumatra