The St. Joseph’s Convent St. Andrew’s (SJCSA) are the overall winners of the inaugural National Vaccination Essay Competition organized by the Ministry of Health. The all-girls’ school swept positions one to four, taking home in excess of EC $8000.00 worth of prizes. A special prize-giving and award ceremony, attended by more than 200 students, was held at the school to honour the SJCSA winners. Melanie Antoine was first; Dawnlyn George was second; third was Dominique Mc.Quilkin; and Lori Mars was fourth. Speaking at the ceremony Health Minister Sen. the Hon. Ann Peters commended the students for their excellent performance and, most of all, for their support to the Health Ministry. The essay competition was as a means of bridging the gap between the ministry and the public, said Peter, who is an SJCSA graduate. She told the students the competition was part of an overall effort aimed at getting Grenadians to better understand the role of the ministry in the development of the country, including its plans, programs and expectations; and also to reinforce the importance of immunization to the population. She also used the opportunity to encourage the students to study hard and take their school work seriously. “Students, the reason why we are here today is because of the hard work demonstrated by your peers at this institution,’’ Minister Peters said. “And so you ought to be proud of this remarkable achievement. It’s an achievement for your school and it’s an inspiration for others who did not have the opportunity to participate in the competition. This is the kind of reward hard work brings.’’ Peters admonished the youngsters to “continue to work hard, listen to your teachers, obey your teachers, study your work and have faith in God; and you will do well, you will excel – not only in the classroom – but also in other places.’’ ABOUT THE COMPETITION The competition was opened to form three students at the secondary school level and the essay was to be written on a day set aside by the Ministries of Health and Education. The topic of the essay was: “Vaccination and its Impact on the Health of Populations”. The organizing committee stipulated that entries were to be submitted in the student’s own handwriting on or before March 26th, 2011, with a 50-500 word count. Participants were asked to pay specific attention to content, length, grammar and cohesiveness to topic. The first prize was a laptop computer and six months free internet service, compliments Hankey’s Computer Services and LIME. The second prize was a Lenovo Tablet, compliments Kool Systems and the third prize was a 7.1 mega pixel digital camera, compliments Courts Grenada Ltd and the fourth - school supplies and accessories compliments the Ministry of Health.