Announcing The Winners Of The Yakezie Writing Contest! Thumbnail

Dear Contestants,

The Yakezie Writing Committee (YWCC) is pleased to announce the winners of the second Yakezie Writing Contest!  With over 1,000 submissions, competition was fierce to say the least.  The YWCC selected the Top 60 essays, and the Members and Readers proceed to vote for their favorites.  They are:

1) “Should They Be Proud?” by Hilary with a score of 1,502.  Hilary writes about her Egyptian heritage and what her ancestors have done to allow her to all that she can now.  Hilary, your post with over 120 comments received the most amount of support by far.  Congratulations on having such a strong support group!  Prize: $600.

2) “Memories” by Katharine with a score of 852.  Memories is an incredibly powerful story about a daughter who lost her father to alcohol.  Katharine, you received the highest rating by the Yakezie Members.  You are a beautiful writer and we encourage to to pursue a career in writing or do something that is able to highlight your writing skills! Prize: $300.

3) “Peaches and Cream” by Remma with a score of 683  Peaches and Cream is a very difficult story about a girl who went through betrayal and then forgiveness.  Remma, your courage and your forgiveness is wonderful.  No adolescent should go through what you went through.  We believe you will be a great English teacher! Prize $100.

The competition was very tight between 3-10, with “Success For The Long Run”, “Wholesome Success”, “A New Video Of Mexico”, “Overcoming It All”, “A Little Game Of Go Fish”, “We’re All In Debt”, “The Chances A Baby Gives” rounding out the top 10.

THE THIRD YAKEZIE WRITING CONTEST- ONCE A CALENDAR QUARTER

For those of you interested in participating in the next Yakezie Writing Contest (YWC), we plan to launch the week of April 4, 2011.  We are currently formulating up to 10 essay questions to offer more variety.  In our April 4th post, we will highlight an open window for submission (most likely from April 18 to April 22, but subject to change) where we will accept the first 500 applicants.  Finally, we will aim to select the Top 30 (as opposed to 60) essays and publish one a day during the month of May.  Winners will be announced in June.

Remember, being good is sometimes not good enough.  Besides encouraging people to develop their writing skills and go out and seek their success, we also encourage people to learn how to market themselves effectively.  You’ll find that once you enter the work force, or start your own company, there is a ton of competition.  It’s he or she who combines good work with good promotion who succeeds.

For those applicants who did not win this round, you are welcome to participate again.  Again, we encourage you all to sign up for our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter @Yakezie to keep abreast of updates, and connect with us if you have any questions.  We are the largest Personal Finance and Lifestyle Blog Network on the web.

TO THE WINNERS

Congrats again to the three winners of the second YWC.  Chris (our webmaster) will be in contact with you each directly to arrange the mailing of the checks.  As proof of receipt and our desire to create a tradition, please have someone take a picture of you with your check and e-mail it back to us.  We will put you up on our wall of winners!  This may help you when you apply to college or look for jobs.  In a competitive world, everything helps!

Best,

The Yakezie Writing Contest Committee (YWCC)