This article is from page 32 of the 2008-01-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 32 JPG
A YOUNG Shannon student’s skills in art have been recognised in a na- tional awards competition in which she scooped first place.
14-year-old Desislava Valkanova, a student at St Caimin’s in Shan- non, won the top prize in a postcard competition which was organised by Léargus, which promotes language learning 1n Ireland.
The event was organised to cele- brate European day of languages last September and the winners have just
been announced.
Junior cycle German students were asked to depict a site of cultural in- terest for another country and write a message in a language of that coun- try on a postcard.
Dessi, who is a native of Bulgaria and moved to Shannon with her fam- ily a few years ago, drew a picture of the Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral in Sofia and wrote a friendly message in her native tongue on the back.
She even went to the lengths of drawing a stamp on the back of the postcard. Her work earned her a
book token for €500.
Dessi and 16 others from St Caimin’s entered the competition. While Desi particularly impressed the judges, her schoolmates also fared well as they were all com- mended on their efforts.
Her teacher Anne O’Loughlin, who organised the competition in St Caimin’s, said everyone was very proud of Desi, who thoroughly de- served the award.
“She is deserving of the award and always puts her heart and soul into her work. It is great to see her getting
some kind of recognition,” she said.
“We are thrilled. We incorporated this into celebrating the European day of languages,” she said.
This was the first time that the school entered this competition and Ms O’Loughlin is optimistic that this success will be followed by fu- ture accolade.