258 pupils with 35 mentor teachers from seven countries participated in this year’s competition, from Montenegro, Italy, Macedonia, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland. The panel of judges was composed of Karol Visinko DSc, Marica Zrilić and Marta Lončarević.
Participating in the competition, organised by the Rijeka branch office of the CHF, were pupils attending Croatian language instruction and other forms of the organised instruction of Croatian as a mother tongue abroad. 258 pupils with 35 mentor teachers from seven countries participated in this year’s competition, from Montenegro, Italy, Macedonia, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland.The creative writing topic for all age groups was Listening To The Words of the Homeland From Afar, while the topics in the journalism category for the age group from 13 to 18 years of age were Ancient Customs Are My Homeland’s Bulwark and The Customs of the Land of My Ancestors. The teacher mentors covered the assigned topics with their pupils and made their selection of works for the Competition. The panel of judges, composed of Karol Visinko DSc, a full professor at the Croatian language department of the University of Rijeka’s Faculty of Philosophy; Marica Zrilić, a Croatian language teacher at Brajda Elementary School in Rijeka; and Marta Lončarević, a senior advisor for Croatian with the Education and Teacher Training Agency, faced the complex task of selecting the best from an abundance of excellent submissions. The first prize winner in the 6 to 12 year age group for creative writing submissions is Danijela Kolić (11) of Kolbermoor, Germany. Second prize winners are Sara Hrgovčić (12) of Urdorf, Switzerland, Laura Kuprešak (11) of Urdorf, Switzerland, Ivan Vuković (7) of Donji Tavankut, Serbia, Leon Cilar (12) of Balingen, Germany and Luka Pejatović (10) of Trieste, Italy. The first prize winner in the 13 to 15 year age group for creative writing submissions is Marina Pismestrović (13) of Srijemska Mitrovica, Serbia, while second prize went to Gabrijela Drmać (14) of Hechingen, Germany. The first prize winner in the 16 to 18 year age group for creative writing submissions is Jelena Bilaver (17) of Weilstetten, Germany. The first prize winner in the 13 to 18 year age group for journalism submissions is Ana Škrlin (13) of Warsaw, Poland, while second prizes went to Lara Kadoić (11) of Hofheim, Germany, Filip Skenderović (14) of Subotica, Serbia, Ana Maria Klišić (14) of Wiesbaden, Germany and Antonia Baotić (13) of Friedrichsdorf, Germany and Emily Marković (13) of Konstanz, Germany.