22 April 2013. The St. Gallen Symposium is proud to announce the winners of its 25th global student essay competition, the “Wings of Excellence Award”. This year, roughly 1000 graduate and postgraduate students from 380 universities and representing 98 nationalities competed for the award. The jury selected three students who were chosen because of their contributions to the theme of the 43rd St. Gallen Symposium (2–3 May 2013), “Rewarding Courage”.

Essays about "Stop being the current" and "Think different"
The three winning contributions of Bree Romuld (Australia, 3rd place), Radoslav Dragov (Bulgaria, 2nd place)and Kilian Semmelmann (Germany, 1st place) are available at www.symposium.org/winners. Bree Romuld’s contribution “Global Institutions and Followership: Relearning that courage sits in the crowd” explains why courageous followership is just as important as courageous leadership. Radoslav Dragov’s essay “Think Different: Why We Don't Think Differently” agrees with the proposition that younger generations settle for a highly streamlined social and economic world.

In his winning essay “Stop being the current”, Kilian Semmelmann calls for a new way to view the young generation. He shows from a neuro-science perspective why they cannot be blamed for who they are. The author suggests a new approach to how young people can be encouraged and empowered.

Debate with experts at the 43rd St. Gallen Symposium
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award, the three winners will join Dr Burton Lee (Stanford University), Chandran Nair (The Global Institute for Tomorrow), and Professor Thomas Pogge (Yale University), in a lively plenary session on the topic “Empowering the next generation” chaired by Professor Yoko Ishikura (Keio University). This session will be held on Thursday, 2 May 2013, from 5:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. CET, broadcasted live at www.symposium.org/livestream.