Grade 11 Student Emerges on Top Out of Over 34,000 Competitors

A: My name is Jiang Chenglinkuan (Lincoln) and I am in Grade 11. I would say I am outgoing and optimistic. I have a strong sense of curiosity and am willing to try new things and accept challenges. I also like to share and help others. I am good at thinking differently, have empathy, and am passionate about charitable and philanthropic activities. I love philosophy, poetry, music, and photography, and in the future, I would like to become a thinker and philosopher to guide and enlighten people to understand the nature of the world correctly, to recognize their situation, and to find the direction of change and progress.

A: First of all, I carefully read and understood the basic rules and judging criteria of John Locke's paper competition.

Secondly, I read “A Concise Introduction to Philosophy”, the famous philosopher Immanuel Kant's book “Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals”, and John Locke’s “The Limits of Human Understanding”, and looked for a large number of philosophical literatures on morality and ethics as well as samples of previous award-winning published philosophical papers.
 

As I am used to do, I unpacked the topic layer by layer, establishing the thesis, collecting and organizing the main arguments, and also carefully built the structure of the paper. I also perfected my writing skills and controlled the details of the lines. By the time of submission, I have revised the paper as many as 10 times.

A: I would like to sincerely thank the CISB leadership team and the guidance counselors of the College Advancement Counseling Office for their support and help in my participation!

Ms. Yena Wang of CISB's College Counseling and Guidance Office learned that I like philosophy and immediately told me about the Philosophy Essay Contest held by John Locke. She strongly recommended me to participate in it.

 

During the competition period, according to the requirements of the organizing committee, participants need to produce a letter of recommendation from a philosophy subject teacher to the organizing committee. Since CISB does not offer a philosophy course, not to mention the lack of a full-time philosophy teacher, former head of school Mr. Douglas Prescott personally acted as my academic referee and academic guarantor, and he provided me with his full support and assistance. He also paid regular attention to the progress of my essay writing and encouraged me to overcome the difficulties and complete the challenge.

A: The first thing is to have outstanding thoughts and insights on the point of view of the John Locke essay proposition. 

Secondly, the arguments should be comprehensive and adequate, with full consideration of the writing structure, writing techniques, and line of thought. 

Finally, revision and polishing are all time-consuming, laborious, painful, and agonizing. But the most challenging part is time management. 

During the competition period, in addition to completing my school assignments every night, I was also doing an online research project on “Existentialism” with Prof. Mark Wrathall of Oxford University, and due to the time difference, I was often taking classes until eleven at night. I had to write a 4,000-word paper for a journal publication, prepare course materials and lectures for a weekly teaching activity at Shibi Middle School in Hainan Mountainous Region, and prepare for the ACT standardized test. 

I was so tired at one point that I was close to the edge of collapse, but in the end, I still overcame the difficulties and challenges and insisted on completing the entire paper, and successfully submitted it for publication.

A: First, the John Locke Essay Contest Tournament has wide international influence and high recognition. It is organized by the British Oxford independent educational organization John Locke Institute together with various institutions in the United States, namely Princeton University, Brown University, and other colleges and universities. The collaboration for this project enjoys a high degree of recognition in the academe world.

Second, being a part of this project will help boost one's application to prestigious schools around the world. And if you perform well at the competition, you can further enhance the competitiveness of your undergraduate application to the world's top universities. Past winners have all proven this. In addition to a well-polished and rigorous academic essay, one can also apply for summer school programs in writing, which will again further boost the strength of one's undergraduate application materials.
 
Third, participating in writing competitions not only improves participants' English writing skills but also fully demonstrates their academic ability and independent thinking, as well as their views and knowledge of their professional fields, which will lay a more solid foundation for their future study career.

Looking back on the experience of participating in the writing competition, it was not only very fun but also practiced my ability to think, write, resist pressure, be resilient, make good use of time, and be self-driven.

A: First and foremost, the John Locke Essay Contest has a very high gold content and does not require any fee for participation. It is recommended that students applying for humanities and social sciences, science and technology, business and other directions should actively participate in the contest to show your excellent essay writing ability, which will surely add points to your college application.

Second, the John Locke Essay Contest has 7 academic directions, including philosophy, economics, psychology, politics, history, law, and theology, with a total of 21 essay topics, and there are a lot of topics that you can choose from. If students applying for science and engineering really don't have a topic that interests them, they are strongly recommended to choose a topic from the direction of philosophy.

 

Lastly, the number of participants in the John Locke Essay Contest in 2024 is 34,823, and it is estimated that the number will increase in 2025. It is recommended that students who participate in the contest manage their time well and complete their essay submissions as early as possible, in order to avoid network congestion on the deadline date, which makes it impossible to finish uploading the essays.