Essay Competition Results
The Minds Underground™ 2024 Competitions saw over 3700 students enter from across the globe including students from Thailand, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, USA, Italy and countless other countries! From assessing whether humans are still evolving, to evaluating the ethical implications of AI, or engineering a panic alarm earring, we were delighted to see a range of original and enlightened responses that demonstrated students' close engagement with the outside world, whilst also showcasing their creative thinking and problem-solving abilities.
These competitions offer a remarkable platform to sharpen writing skills, delve into academic passions, and provide a great talking point for personal statements and university interview discussions. A huge congratulations to all entrants - the winners are listed below and we have provided some example winning entries from the past few years for inspiration.
2024 Winners
Young Minds (U14)
Winner: Asma Wazeer (Dubai International Academy Emirates Hills, UAE)
Runner Up: Arvia Reihanna Bani (Binus School Simprug, Indonesia)
Highly Commended: Annabel Evans, Pasu Rattanasiwamok, Aaron James, Marvin Lee, Dhiren Karthikeyan Pavya, Grace Cha, Sofia Liao
Literature
Winner: Anaya Patel (St. Margaret's School, Bushey, UK)
Runner Up: Isabella Nuttall (Pocklington School, UK)
Highly Commended: Kavya Vaswani, Sansara Nagpal, Thomas Burke, Wei En Hong, JunXi Mah, McKayla Tan, Iraa Mantri, Katherine van Wyk, Amelia Barter, Madeleine Riley-Smith
History
Winner: Eloise Aliker (Oundle School, UK)
Runner Up: Aarushi Makker (The Tiffin Girls’ School, UK)
Highly Commended: Fin Trevelyan, Nayona Nag, Jiwon Park, Effie Webb, Inaya Gandhi
Politics
Winner: Alicia Von Hausswolff Juhlin (West Island School, Hong Kong SAR, China)
Runner Up: Antara Rao (North London Collegiate, UK)
Highly Commended: Millie Lloyd, Meagan Lim, Anoushka Patel, Cara Lee, Louis Ferro, Hannah Kopec, Luca Orlandi
Architecture
Winner: Sherman Wong (Newport Girls’ High School, UK)
Runner Up: Michelle Xue (Xaverian College, UK)
Highly Commended: Sangmin Lee, Kitty Seymour, Sai Mogudampally, Anqi Li, Sumi Kim-Fulcher
History of Art
Winner: Younwoo Cho (Seoul International School, South Korea)
Runner Up: Heyon Choi (Philips Academy Andover, United States)
Highly Commended: Jason Bang, Flora Dodd, Ella Choi, Ethan Seong Jae Yoo, Olivia Tyrrell, Mya Sidhu, Amy Ormiston, Ananya Deekshitha
Economics
Winner: Aratrika Lahiri (Westminster School, UK)
Runner Up: Lexi Dowling (Rugby School, UK)
Highly Commended: Edgar Brown, Chloe Wong, Koyuki Lowe, Henry Li, Shreyas Veturi, Archie Rowland, Kangmin Kim, Rohan Varia, Kush Mandan, Kammesh Atputhajeyam, Anushka Aravinthan
Philosophy
Winner: Wei En Hong (Hwa Chong Junior College, Singapore)
Runner Up: Yi Shan Tse (Queen Anne’s School, UK)
Highly Commended: Penelope Jin, Dima Al-Quzwini, Yong Diat (Isaac) Koh, Junjian Zhang, Veena Sivasubramaniam, Demetrius Swainston-Harrison, Luke Chalmers
Geography
Winner: Aidan Malhotra (St Paul’s School, UK)
Runner Up: Raphaela Werner (St Paul’s Girls’ School, UK)
Highly Commended: Daniel Lievesley, Lorelei Goach, Octavia Grassby, Ralph Hei Wang Wong, Amba Johal, Molly McEvoy
Law
Winner: Shane Mu (Cardiff Sixth Form College, UK)
Runner Up: Esmee Cadogan (St Dominic’s Sixth Form College, UK)
Highly Commended: Bethan Hoole, Rizah Khan, Isabelle Qi, Taisia Cobliuc, Aiyana Kaul, Phoebe Proudfoot, Lara Kerr, Leander Bartsch, Ha Bao Khanh Nguyen
Modern Languages
Winner: Harry Cowan (Tiffin School, UK)
Runner Up: Emma Hamilton (Wimbledon High School, UK)
Highly Commended: Pippa Drysdale, Junjian Zhang, Natalia Perkins, Peter Heller, Mila Mitrovic
Classics
Winner: Isabella Finlay-Brothers (St Paul’s Girls’ School, UK)
Runner Up: Clara Wade (The King’s School Canterbury, UK)
Highly Commended: Connie Digges, Toby Collins, Ivana Leung, Lauren Baker, Laura Stevens
Psychology
Winner: Namisha Batheja (Jumeirah College, UAE)
Runner Up: Isabelle Pond (Caterham School, UK)
Highly Commended: Cecilia Zeng, Charlotte Trew, Eleanor Hurley-Land, Evie Underhill, Lachie McLean, Mihika Sharma, Phoebe Hill, Primrose Penney, Sophie Neill, Tanvi Bordia, Yuk Lam Lam
Medicine
Winner: Akachi Anyanwu (Harrow School, UK)
Runner Up: Chloe Fung (St Paul’s Girls’ School, UK)
Highly Commended: Anjika Singh, Chloe Chiu, Chloe Neo, Dheethya Ponnala, Haroun Noordeen, Heidi Long, Isabell Oh, Jady Chan, Margi Javle, Maya Shah, Raphael Leung, Riya Gupta, Seyed Jalili, Summer Jones, Taarah Chandiok, Victoria Foo, Yi Chun Clare Pun
Computer Science
Winner: Serena Jacob (Bedford Girls’ School, UK)
Runner Up: Soe Thway Ko (Harrow International School, Bangkok, Thailand)
Highly Commended: Aditi Suresh, Arjun Arora, Bach Le, Danny Guha, Elin Zhang, Emma So, Hyunmin Kim, Ruby Huang, Thomas Phillips
Dentistry
Winner: Matteo Shidrawi (St Paul’s School, UK)
Runner Up: Madiha Rashid (Queen Mary’s High School, UK)
Highly Commended: Diya Jain, Wai Fung Lam, Bryneet Kaur, Ella Osborne, Wing Chan, Zainab Abdelaziz, Zainab Saeed, Kaiwen Chen, Tisha Sivakumar
Veterinary
Winner: Kaitlin Lung (Roedean School, UK)
Runner Up: Rachel Rogers (Ripon Grammar School, UK)
Highly Commended: Inayah Asghar, Catherine Hokandar, Inaaya Irshad
Mathematics
Winner: Siona Heritage (Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls, UK)
Runner Up: Mia Lewis (Northampton High School, UK)
Highly Commended: Maddilyn Hall, Millie Bramley, Betty Li, Ryan Ng, Jeongin Koo, James He, Andjela Radovic, Zhi Yuan Huang, Dion Gurung, Hugo Windridge
Biology
Winner: Charlotte Wall (Westonbirt School, UK)
Runner Up: Guanjin Guo (Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne, Australia)
Highly Commended: Ishani Mariathasan, Stacey Tan, Riya Kharbanda, Matilda Halford, Seth Toulmin, Anya Hagen, Ekaterina Rudenko, Chris Wang
Chemistry
Winner: Cheuk Ning Suzette Tjang (Wycombe Abbey, UK)
Runner Up: Jacqueline Wu (St Paul’s Girls’ School, UK)
Highly Commended: Clarence Lau, Karen Kan, Chloe Lam, Sahar Firoozi, Susan Xie, Esha Adnani, Soha Aggarwal, Elena Maddocks, Annissa Cheng, Elli Magliulo
Physics
Winner: Sam Fricker (Matthew Arnold School, UK)
Runner Up: Jaturapatr Assawamartbunlue (Harrow International School, Bangkok, Thailand)
Highly Commended: Jack Ardern, Chang Liu, Aliza Raza, Archie Hodgson, Isabel Suddock, Ingjun Luangtana-anan, Rakesh Vaddepalli, Srujan Patil, Nurkhan Toleyev, Zuwern Goik, Kibishan Sritharan, Malaika Arshad
Engineering Innovation Challenge
MOST REALISTIC CATEGORY
Winner: Jiyaa Shah (City of London School for Girls, UK)
Runner-Up: Saud Hashim (Pates Grammar School, UK)
MOST INVENTIVE CATEGORY
Winner: Jay Jung (Phillips Academy Andover, USA)
Runner-Up: Arianna Dotsey (UTC Oxfordshire, UK)
MOST VISUAL CATEGORY
Winner: Qiao Yun (Evelyn) Teng (St Joseph’s Institution International School, Malaysia)
Runner-Up: Yunyi Che (St Paul’s Girls’ School, UK)
SPECIAL MENTION:
Marcus Southward, Sam Fricker, Josh Clift, Umesha Shanmugarajah, Wing Lam Wong, Sarah Perera, Abhinav Bangalore
2023 Winners
Young Minds (U14)
Winner: Emily Lin (Chelmsford County High School for Girls)
Runner Up: Alana Basinger (Leighton Park School)
Highly Commended: Ashvitha Banutheepan, Daniel Chung, Siena Edwards, Matthew Wong, Fred de la Mora, Youssef El-Nager, Luca Orlandi, Thomas Battye, Manqi Wang, Maiya Singh, Ka Hou Leong
Literature
Winner: Ella Joshi (Hill House School)
Runner Up: Theo Wood (The Grammar School at Leeds)
Highly Commended: Rianna Chhabra, Ethan Liaw, Nida Haider, Erika Mckenzie, Lydia Mitchell, Millie Ferreira-Leake, Amali Carter
History
Winner: Darren Lee (Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet)
Runner Up: Sophia Hackworth (The Tiffin School)
Highly Commended: Eleanor Hetherington, Rhiditya Windlass, Ash Bryant, Ryan Chiu, Rumi Nagpal, Scarlett Pirie, Ralph Armitage, Joe Turner
Politics
Winner: Meagan Tam (Cheltenham Ladies College)
Runner Up: Hattie Simpson (Royal Masonic School for Girls)
Highly Commended: Abigail Hart, Ivy Zhang, Henry Adams, Araf Khan, Daniyal Malik, Junseo Kim, Shivom Singh
Architecture
Winner: Rex Weber-Brown (St Paul's School)
Runner Up: Lara Orlandi (St Paul's Girls' School)
Highly Commended: Lara Van Hunen, Sofia Podolskaya, Chloe Bong, Sofia Tjandranegara, Natalia Moks Rodrigues, Niccolo Smith
History of Art
Winner: Clotilde Dumont (City of London School for Girls)
Runner Up: Zoya May Arif (Leyton Sixth Form College)
Highly Commended: Vanessa Ho, Yutong Heng, Jimin Lee
Economics
Winner: Duncan Wong (St Paul's School)
Runner Up: Ashwin Telang (West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, USA)
Highly Commended: Anna Stringer, King Hin Lau, Grace Wu, Roger Cai, Avni Ladwa, Pranesh Murugeshan, Thomas Evans Alcantara
Philosophy
Winner: Mila Pretolani (The British School of Milan - Sir James Henderson, Italy)
Runner Up: Joint - Callum Vujanovic (Sydney Church of England Grammar School, Australia) and Orlando Virgin (Eton College)
Highly Commended: Daniel Lees, Amelia Burns, Orlando Virgin, Alessandro Villa, Justin Choi
Dentistry
Winner: Isla Yip-Checuz (Putney High School)
Runner Up: Yi Fan Ni (Nonsuch High School for Girls)
Highly Commended: Akzhana Jeyashankar, Pranav, Sivakumar, Imogen Bungay, Chowon Moon
Geography
Winner: Oliver Shaw (University College School)
Runner Up: Erin Williams (St Helen and St Katherine)
Highly Commended: Rosie Marks, Zara Ellicock, Tom Bailey, Zachary Wilson, Ka Yu Charisse Wong, Hannah Taylor, Chloê Lesjongard
Law
Winner: Inayat Pathak (Kristiansand Cathedral School, Norway)
Runner Up: Rory Lewis (King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford)
Highly Commended: Jessica Williamson, Jude Howarth, Maria Payne, Ted Baber, Dylan Lincoln, Sophia Membery
Modern Languages
Winner: Anders Hei (Winchester College)
Runner Up: Eloise Grieg (Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School)
Highly Commended: Grace Greaves, Louisa Paterson, Emily Cunnington, Niara Morenas, Holly Bagnall, Ewan Plowden-Wardlaw, Matilda Borthwick
Classics
Winner: Freddie Bicknell-Found (Brighton College)
Runner Up: Amelia Fournis-Lerma (City of London School for Girls)
Highly Commended: Ryan Chiu, Alice Mazon
Psychology
Winner: Sophia Huang (St Mary's School, Calne)
Runner Up: Kayla Roberts (Yarm School)
Highly Commended: Toni Reid, Martyna Falkowska, Molly Smith, Lara Huddlestone, Sripriya Singh, Aoife McCann, Jeremy Zhu, Megan Ma, Ian Park, Millie Ferreira-Leake, Jana Lai, Olivia Walch, Daisy White, Anna Chantrill, Grace Mold, Samaira Gupta, Anh Thu Le, Jade Phiri, Mia Dent, Alizeh Faisal, Luiza Britton, Bo Yan Teh, Hannah Wiseman
Medicine
Winner: Shriyaa Arunachalam (Westminster School)
Runner Up: Rawnaq Islam (Putney High School)
Highly Commended: Kaitlyn Mok, Michael Siu, Manson Lau, Ho Ming Chan, Aryaman Dhir, Alston Lam, Matthew Wong, Saruta Aojanepong, Tanvee Dutta, Skye Hunte-St.Rose, Alexandra Kibukka, Evelyn Welbourne, Michelle Okeke, Tanushri Puthalapattu, Ksenia Podoplelova, Luxsigan Vamadevan, Chak Raza, Zoe Wong, Warda Amir, Megan Vos, Vaneeza Sara Hussain, Minsol Kim, Gwen Kroes, Kajan Sivakumar, Menna Badawi, Ranulph Youngman Sullivan, Natalie Chan, June Hyun, Laila Elsisi, Huda Ahmed, Harish Narasimhan, Sohan Vohra, Odelia Yang, Keya Nanavati, Ka Long Adrian Liu, Thurka Sasikumar, Taiwo Ademola, Dahye Jung, Naoko Koh, Artemis Aryanpor
Computer Science
Winner: Sophia Chan (Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School)
Runner Up: Aaron Zhou (Caterham School)
Highly Commended: Haem Haemapun, Sahenn Arya, Hiu Wai Ho, Tosin B. Jokosenumi, Arjun Khullar
Veterinary
Winner: Jeovana Ip (Oxford International College)
Runner Up: Emily Downer (Wimbledon High School)
Highly Commended: Sze Hang Angelina Lam, Olivia Kandila, Piper Lynch, Vivian Lee
Mathematics
Winner: Alice Colombo (International School of Monaco)
Runner Up: Luke Sampson (Chipping Norton School)
Highly Commended: Leah (JJ) Fitzpatrick, Suit Wang Owen Law, Hao Le, Leo Duan, Kamil Magomedov, Dion Gurung
Biology
Winner: Charlotte Wilson (St Paul's Girls' School)
Runner Up: Vivian Lee (The Independent Schools Foundation Academy, Hong Kong SAR, China)
Highly Commended: Bhasyn Saraporn (Special Mention for inspired reference to his own orchid plants in answer to the Q: 'Do Plants Talk To Each Other'?), Emmanuelle Vidal, Lia Warren, Tanvi Patil, Emilie De Charentenay, Anvita Tripathi, Max Lian, Heito Ngan, Anika Killa, Gabriella Sentosa, Candy Bali
Chemistry
Winner: Lola Idle (City of London School for Girls)
Runner Up: Alex Williams (Westminster School)
Highly Commended: William Wang, Shriya Subramanian, Anay Bindroo, Dongmin Yoon
Physics
Winner: Rebecca Raymond (City of London School for Girls)
Runner Up: Neil Nair (Watford Grammar School for Boys)
Highly Commended: Dominic Rogers, Ciara Ho, Jamie Baker, Louis Stoller, Hikari Suwa, Ronnie (Hexuan) Chen, Rishit Garg, Isaac East, Amy Grendelmeier, Sambhav Jain, Katie Dunn, Ming To Suen, Charlie Sampson, Simon He, Kyla Jordan, Nikhil Warrier
Engineering Innovation Challenge
OVERALL WINNER
Patrik Grubits's 'O-Concept' (Eltham College)
"A nice way of incorporating multi-functionality, with a design that can scale to accommodate the needs of the user. The dream all-in-one wearable"
MOST REALISTIC CATEGORY
Winner: Aryan Malhotra's 'Earring Aid' (Wallington County Grammar School)
Runner-Up: Daisy Keenan's 'SunSmart' (Presdales School)
MOST INVENTIVE CATEGORY
Winner: Patrik Grubits's 'O-Concept' (Eltham College)
Runner-Up: Liya Peri's 'Living Moss Gilet' (Nonsuch High School for Girls)
MOST VISUAL CATEGORY
Winner: Hussein Elzaafarany's 'NutriLens' (Dubai College)
Runner-Up: Ope Olatona's 'COPE' (Ashmole Academy)
SPECIAL MENTION:
Harriet Randall's 'Memory Band' (Leighton Park School)
Example Winning Entries
2022 Winners
Economics
Winner: Tanya Katyal (St Paul's Girls' School)
Runner Up: Arth Kochhar (St Paul's School)
Highly Commended: Christina Scote, Max Ashton, Mariella Jasper, Abby So, Chun Shing Pan, Madeleine Davies, Dhriti Sonthalia, Dayan Pindoria, Mohan Shroff, Seyon Santhamoorthy
History
Winner: Evelyn Card (West Kirby Grammar School)
Runner Up: Ava Goldin (Lady Eleanor Holles School)
Highly Commended: Jemima Grieves, Harry Bryant, Madinah Morrison, Saavi Patel, Joel Lee
Literature
Winner: Joe Wright (Newcastle Royal Grammar School)
Runner Up: Kate Hutton (Sutton Grammar School)
Highly Commended: Mira Weiler, Amara Ogle, Jasmin Sin, Rosie Roberts, Hannah Stainbank
Politics
Winner: Ingrid Cochrane (The Tiffin Girls' School)
Runner Up: Elsie McDowell (St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School)
Highly Commended: Sanjana Bandaru, Jack Powell, Alice Mazon, Skye Backhouse, Lucia Trivass-Berlanga, Celine Zeng, Zoya Wadhawan, Junhyeop Cho, Shounak Malhotra, Jessica Holmes, Wylie Brunman, Matilda Kaschta, Adeola Amure
Young Minds
Winner: Alice Yi (Leighton Park School)
Runner Up: Patpat Noimai (Harrow International School, Thailand)
Highly Commended: Kevin Thant, Zayna Iqbal, Ju Hyeonjun, Nichadapa Eamskoolnont, Janus Tsen, Antigoni Mavroudi, Leona Ka Yee Cheng, Monty, Anoushka Misra, Suhanna Saini, Shreya Chinsamy, Adam Teagle
Engineering
Overall Winner: ListenLearn, Samantha Dias (St Gregory's Catholic Science College)
Special Mention from the assessor: ‘I really liked the concept, and the integration of the bracelet and the aid. It seems like this could be viable today - I suggest she gets a patent in and starts marketing it!’
Best Inventive Idea Winner: VI:Vision, Bhavyaa Tibrewal (The Grammar School at Leeds)
Best Inventive Idea Runner Up: Hair Peace, Nell Hampell (Brighton College)
Best Realistic Idea Winner: ListenLearn, Samantha Dias (St Gregory's Catholic Science College)
Best Realistic Idea Runner Up: Trigeminal Neuralgia Soother, Freya Coughlan (Canford)
Most Visual Submission Winner: unLeash, Patrik Grubits (Eltham College)
Most Visual Submission Runner Up: The DogMeter, Gauthami Vireswer (Nonsuch High School for Girls)
Languages
Winner: Thomas Hilditch (Eton College)
Runner Up: Jasmine Wharton (Dubai College, Dubai)
Highly Commended: Daisy Gorton, Ruby Iverson, Sofiyah Akther, Lexi Kentridge
Medicine
Winner: Rachel Legg (Leighton Park School)
Runner Up: Arvin Ian Ip (Oxford International College)
Highly Commended: Lucia Zilles, Nyneisha Bansal, Fia Jacob, Karnuya Thurairajasingam, Roslynn Ntim, Rick Suzuki, Marcus Alexander Lee, Aoi Nakayama, Roshan Hooshmand Aryan, Maxime Desbrousses, Athavan Arulalagan, Hannah Hunt, Ihsaan Jama, Naomi Young, Vanessa Yip, Seyon Santhamoorthy, Marcus Cheng, Aika Ono, Vibha Shetty, MacKenzie Steele, Valerie Fiamavle, Sope Owojaiye
Psychology
Winner: Nina Thyr (Tiffin School)
Runner Up: Johanna Telek (Milestone Institute, Hungary)
Highly Commended: Lara Bower, Lottie-Louise Buckland-McGowan, Tran Mai Anh, Sophie Chiang, Tara Medford, Sofia D'Inverno, Defne Kırtıloğlu and Zeynep Naz Öztürk, Cara Pearson, Athene Gill-Banner, Maisie Unwin, Imogen Phillips, Sophie Chung, Serena Diamond, Agnes Chan, Kavinmiga Swami, Oliver Smith, Dishita Jallan
Geography
Winner: Esme Chapman (Stratford Girls' Grammar School)
Runner Up: Pia Mathur (Wycombe Abbey)
Highly Commended: Olivia Secker, Rosemarie Egelie, Ananya Sharma, Elspeth Watson Naomi Rushton, Alicia Justham Bello, Polina Zhukova
Law
Winner: Alice Mazon (Putney High School)
Runner Up: Olivia Lada Moczarski (St George's College Weybridge)
Highly Commended: Ethan Au, Martina Bizzaro, Mia Ven, Vrinda Vig, Aliyah Turner, James Hogben, Zuha Khan, Jake Pronger
Philosophy
Winner: Jason Bao (Mulgrave, Canada)
Runner Up: Josha Gupta (Reading School)
Highly Commended: Lucy Collier, Alexander Golshan-Ebrahimi, Ashwin Laksumanage, Luke Paviour
STEM
Winner: Leela Downward (St Paul's Girls' School)
Runner Up: Hamish Campbell (City of London School)
Highly Commended: Alina Hu, Henri Naylor, Hyunseo Chang, Patrick Morgan, Declan Musto, Louise Osborne, Elana Roberts, Kenny (Pu) Cheng, XIaodi Fu, Beth Cameron, Amélie Gadsby, Libby Toulmin, Tam Ho Yin, Ewa Brzuchacz, Anton Ariens, Eugenie Ho, Chloe Preston, Sarah (Hongcan) Gu
Art & Architecture
Winner: Paulina Gąsiorowska (Akademeia High School, Poland)
Runner Up: Sunki Min (Winchester College)
Highly Commended: Alina Hu, Kirsten Blackburn, Lara Orlandi, Ariya Kukreja, Ellie McKnight, Sue An Park, Elly Na