At American International School, we encourage our students to follow their passions and embrace challenges. This past month, Grade 7 student Saura did exactly that on a global stage, earning a monumental achievement in the Cambridge Essay Writing Competition hosted by the Cambridge Centre of International Research (CCIR). On May 26, 2026, Saura was awarded the Silver Award in the Junior Division for her beautifully crafted essay, placing her at the top tier of a highly competitive international field.
To understand the scale of Saura’s achievement, look at the numbers behind this year’s competition. Out of more than 15,000 submissions from students across 50 countries, the jury panel—consisting of elite scholars from Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, MIT, and several Ivy League universities—awarded only the top 0.4% of participants following four rigorous rounds of blind reviews.
As a Silver Award recipient, Saura’s exceptional writing earned her an impressive suite of prizes, including a $100 USD cash award, a $300 USD CCIR Academy scholarship, and a digital award certificate. Beyond these tokens, she has also been invited for a featured interview on the CCIR podcast and website, giving her a global platform to discuss her ideas. Most excitingly, Saura has received an exclusive invitation to the official award ceremony and dinner at the University of Cambridge this summer.
Saura has always harbored a deep love for both writing and science. When her family spotted the competition on social media back in April, they knew it was the perfect opportunity for her to blend those twin passions. Tasked with the complex, real-world prompt, “Should getting vaccines be a matter of individual freedom or community responsibility?”, Saura rose to the occasion. Her winning essay, titled “A Hole in the Net,” beautifully navigated the intersection of ethics, science, and social duty.
Success at this level does not happen overnight, and the journey tested Saura’s resilience. One of her biggest hurdles was learning how to manage her time efficiently. Balancing a high-level international competition alongside regular schoolwork meant making sacrifices, including tightening her schedule and giving up some of her usual downtime to focus heavily on her academics. She poured her energy into endless drafts, executing multiple rounds of intense revisions to perfect her arguments.
According to her parents, ever since Saura joined AIS in early childhood, AIS has always encouraged her to read, write, and explore her interests, helping her develop a profound, lifelong passion for Language Arts. For this competition specifically, her AIS Humanities teacher, Ms. Rebekah Henry, provided immense support, invaluable advice, and critical proofreading feedback. Saura’s Silver Award is a shining reminder of what happens when a student’s natural curiosity is paired with hard work and a supportive school community.
We are incredibly proud of Saura for representing AIS with such academic distinction on the world stage, and we wish her an incredible time celebrating her success at Cambridge!
