FCCA Announces 2017 Children’s Essay Contest Winners

Pembroke Pines, FL (August 25, 2017) - The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) has announced the winners of the 2017 FCCA Children’s Essay Competition. Students for this year’s competition were invited to write an essay on the prompt: “What will cruise ship passengers learn about my country? What will they remember most and hold with them?”
 
Understandably, it was difficult to choose the overall winner in each age category, as each essay showed the students’ excellence in education and displayed their overall knowledge and awareness in the tourism industry, along with their creativity in problem solving.

First-, second- and third-place winners were chosen from the junior division, consisting of students between eight - and twelve-years-old, and the senior division featured students between thirteen and sixteen. The 2017 winners are:

Junior Division:

Senior Division:

First place in the junior division was Jaden Dowridge from Barbados, and Alex Junior Gustave from Saint Luciatook the gold in the senior division.  The first-place winners will receive academic scholarships of $3,000 (U.S.) each in addition to the first-place winners will also be invited with their chaperones to the FCCA Caribbean Cruise Conference & Trade Show Opening Ceremony in Merida, Mexico on Tuesday, October 24th, 2017 to accept their prizes.

Second place in the junior division was Giovanni Gomez from Antigua, and in the senior division, Renee Sandy from Grenada earned the honors. Second-place winners and their schools each receive monetary awards of $1,500.

Third place in the junior division was Wannessa Iathe Hanna fromBahamas, and Jermasha Mellow from Dominica won it in the senior division. Third-place winners and their schools each will receive a monetary award of $1,000.

This year’s essay contest attracted entries from 19 countries. The aim of the contest is to assist students in furthering their education while letting them think about their own destinations, its involvement in the tourism industry, and providing an opportunity to problem solve for the real world. To reward all the students for their great efforts, all other finalists will receive a monetary award of $200.