An essay contest offered through A&E received hundreds of submissions from across the country.

The 'Lives That Make a Difference Essay Contest' invites Canadian students in Grades 5 to 12 to write an essay on who they think made an important impact on Canadian society in the past year, and this year's first prize winner was Gabrielle Courte (Gabi).

Writing an essay 300 words or less on someone who had a positive or negative effect in 2018, Gabi, a grade eight student at École Manachaban Middle School, went outside the box and wrote about Rupi Kaur. Choosing Rupi Kaur was easy shares Gabi, who fell in love with her after reading one of her books.

Gabi Courte takes first prize in A&E essay contest for students grades 5 to 8.

Kaur, a Canadian-born artist, brings creativity to life through her poetry, photography, and Instagram. Known as a strong feminist and social justice advocate she creates pieces centered around topics like women-hood, abuse, inequality, violence, growth, and dignity for all. "I wanted to make sure the person (I chose) was a little more relevant and original; I mean there was a lot of great Canadians this past year. I also thought it is an issue that has come up recently with the #metoo movement."

Gabi's teacher, Frederick Taylor, says before the students even thought about writing the essay, they had to do complete a lot of research. While he didn't mark the submitted essays, students were awarded grades based on their pre-submission work. "Before they even write they have almost two or three weeks of research. First, they have to find a person they want to write about and then go through numerous internet sites, books, magazines...anywhere you can get information on this person. From the articles, they have to state who has written it, when, do all the fact-checking, then do a conclusion on that one, and then go into a second article. Before they are done, they had to analyze five articles and determine what they have in common, not in common, and what they are saying. And the last part is they need to cite everything; so learning how to cite from the internet, books, magazines, electronic encyclopedias, all this type of media before they even start writing."

Gabi had to do quite a bit of fact checking she shares, especially with Kaur's main platform being Instagram. "It was kind of hard because a lot of her platform is Instagram and a lot of her articles say different things based on how long ago they were, but I still found a few new things which was good."

Finding out roughly two weeks ago that Gabi was indeed the first place winner was incredibly exciting. "We had it keep it quiet until they did their press release and the money arrived."

Placing first place in the A&E contest awarded Gabi $2000, and Taylor $1000 which will be donated back to Manachaban Middle School for an initiative which is currently being discussed. As for the two thousand dollars, Gabi has plans. "I am saving half for university, and the other half will be used on our school's Quebec trip in May."

Not only is Gabi's family incredibly proud of her, so is the entire school community. Crediting her Language Arts skills to reading, Gabi says she loves a lot of different writing genres. "I read all over; I don't really have a preference. I'm about to read a book that a friend got called 'Half The Sky' which is written by two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and it is about how women in the world are treated and depicted in different countries and cultures."

Gabi is the second student at Manachaban to win a first-place prize shares Taylor, who over the years has had students compete in essay writing contests including A&E and Maclean's Magazine.

Taylor says amongst the other one hundred or so students that he teaches; essay submission topics included Justin Trudeau, ISIS, and drug-related pieces.

Looking forward to a future either in journalism or as an author, Gabi has started the process by applying for YouthWrite, a camp near Bragg Creek. Being held at Kamp Kiwanis, if accepted, Gabi will work with top-notch published authors, learn writing techniques for specific genres, and have the opportunity to ask questions and receive guidance from experienced writers.