The Penta Foundation has announced the winners in the 9th annual essay competition Vision 2025. The competition committee, comprised of Penta representatives, has selected 5 essays out of 63 entries and divided EUR 11,000 of prize money among the winners. The winning essays stood out for their originality, logical conclusions and expertise in the given field.
This year’s topic was Lobbying – its possibilities in the future and the rules of its regulation. According to Matej Magic, this year’s winner, businesspeople will increasingly try to influence the political discourse through direct participation in political life and foundation of new political parties and movements. Other tools will include pressure on public opinion and organising of public events such as petitions. The Internet and the social media are already playing an important role today and their influence in the future is set to grow. Lobbying will change from a behind the scenes to a public topic.
„We were very pleased by the level of interest and the quality of work presented. We see from the several years we have been doing this that the level of thinking and knowledge of university students in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland is getting better every year. I would like to thank all students who participated that they are sharing their visions with us,”said Lea Krčmáriková, Penta Foundation’s administrator.
Winners of the 9th annual Vision 2025 competition:
Gabriel Tóth and Jakub Šindelář, defending champions, were among winners again this year.
1st place (EUR 5,000): Matej Magic (Czech Technical University in Brno)
2nd place (EUR 3,000): Jakub Šindelář (University of Economics, Prague)
3rd place (EUR 1,000): Gabriel Tóth (Comenius University in Bratislava), Weronika Koralewska (Poznan School of Economics), Dagmara Michniewicz (Jagiellonian University in Krakow)
About Vision 2025
The competition is organised by Penta with a goal of awarding original thoughts of young people concerning business and public life. In all 9 years of Vision 2025, a total of 636 essays took part, 71 of which were selected for awards. A total of EUR 94,000 was awarded to winners in the competition’s history.
The project is organised by Penta Foundation, which has donated over EUR 3.5 million toward educational, healthcare, sports, cultural, and scientific projects since 2002.