Maša Jejina, a fourth-year student at the Third Belgrade Gymnasium and a first-year piano student at the Faculty of Music Arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade, won first place at the “Belt and Road” world competition organized by the “21st Century Cup” in English, which was held in the Chinese city of Wuxi, not far from Shanghai, from October 17 to 21, in competition with 30 participants. As one of the youngest competitors out of a total of 29 from countries around the world, Maša made a strong impression on the jury in the semifinals through her speech on the topic “Civilizations: clash and coexist”, as well as through mature and interesting answers to the jury’s questions.
She advanced to the final of the competition where she once again excelled by giving a speech on the topic “Agree to disagree” and an additional speech that had to be improvised at the competition itself. The competition brought together representatives from 60 countries, and 29 of them participated in the grand final. In preparation for Maša’s speech and travel to the world competition, in addition to the organizers of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, representatives of the “Belt and Road” Institute of the Government of the Republic of Serbia also participated, Prof. Bojan Lalić, director of the Institute, and Prof. Dr. Dragana Mitrović. According to the organizers, Maša proved her creativity and eloquence in English and the ability to combine previously acquired knowledge of history, geography, music, literature, art, as well as a great cultural experience gained by staying there for a whole week, and express it through the skill of public speaking.
As a reminder, Maša Jejina qualified for the world competition by winning the first prize at the national competition organized on September 16, 2024, at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. The competition was attended by students from Belgrade and Novi Sad, and they were judged by a three-member jury consisting of: Kornelija Odri, a professor of English at Karlovac Gymnasium, Prof. Dr. Bojan Lalić, director of the “Belt and Road” Institute of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, andBojana Borković, an English teacher at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. The Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad, has been organizing a national English language competition for four years in partnership with colleagues from the “21st Century Cup” organization based in Beijing.
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Source: Blic
Photo: 21st Century Cup