Student Writing Competition- Our Winning Entry!

We’re thrilled to congratulate Kacia from Sheffield Park Academy, winner of this year’s student writing competition! Her piece, “Breaking Out Of My Shell: The Journey from Shy to Confident,” is a heartfelt account of how she transformed from a quiet observer into a confident advocate for her community through the First Give program. Kacia’s story shines with authenticity, capturing the courage it takes to step outside your comfort zone and the joy of making a real difference.

Her efforts didn’t go unnoticed. Alyson from The Sunday Centre, the charity Kacia represented, shared glowing feedback:

“The students had prepared well and asked us many questions. We also attended the presentation and were impressed by their preparations. It was a very big challenge to stand and explain their project in front of an entire year of students… It was an excellent way to raise social awareness amongst an entire year of school students. We do hope this can be replicated in future years.”

The Sunday Centre provides hot meals and companionship to vulnerable adults, many living unpredictable lives. Because students couldn’t visit the project directly, Kacia and her team devised a creative way to help, raising funds to purchase warm clothing for distribution. This thoughtful approach, combined with Kacia’s vivid storytelling and reflective tone, makes her piece a standout example of empathy, resilience, and leadership

Read her winning entry here:

Breaking Out Of My Shell: The Journey from Shy to Confident 

How one underconfident student who feared public speaking broke out of their shell to try and make a difference in their local community with the help of their friends and First Give.

By Kacia

Coming from Sheffield Park Academy (a school with lots of opportunities), I was unsure about entering such a competition. Never would I have considered this without the support of my friends and peers; they even decided to do it with me! I, myself, have never performed before. I have sat on the sidelines and watched student leaders and Next-Gen leader perform and present but never have myself. So, this was all new for me.  

We were offered the opportunity to take part in First Give to work towards our “Helping the Community” student charter badge. Along with some of my friends of whom some are also student leaders. We decided to take part as we have a passion for helping others, more specifically helping those who struggle with poverty.  

The stall raised £40 for The Sunday Centre

On arrival for the first session, I gained self-doubt and felt shy and unmotivated. This was not just because I had never done anything like this before, but I was competing not for myself but for a well worthy charity. However, before ANY of our presentation or social action could happen, we needed to discover what social issue we would be combating. From being part of the student leadership team, the issue I was already combating was food poverty. To broaden the issue, we talked about poverty itself. In our community I know that lots of people, the elderly and the young are battling the struggle to afford a warm meal each night (an estimated one in five households struggling per year). Knowing this information, I wanted to spread awareness in hopes of making an impact towards this issue. From our first few sessions we had decided to support the Sunday Centre. This is a Sheffield City Centre charity that opens on a Sunday and provides a hot meal for those who need it.  

Throughout this 8-week process I have learnt so much, gained so many skills from gaining confidence and becoming more independent to wanting to compete for more opportunities like these. From holding a stall in school in the attempt to raise some money, to talking about why our charity deserved the prize money.

The stall we held raised around £40, which I would call a success as we only had one lunch break to run the event. We created a poster which was shared around school and on social. We decided to do a hoopla style game where students could win the treats they managed to hoop. In addition to trying to raise money, another group held a penalty shoot-out nearby on the same day. Helped by seeing our teacher dressed up as a princess being goalkeeper, we raised more awareness and got more attention towards our stall (we wanted more attention in hopes of raising more than them).  

Posters were created to advertise fundraising efforts

After we had gathered photos and evidence of our social action, we started to slowly create our presentation. Although it did not look appealing or entertaining at first, we kept on going. We maintained professionalism. We kept organised whilst setting out plans between the two of us. We were determined to do our charity proud.  

As the presentation was upcoming, we had to prepare things like posture and speech development, which led to the lovely Nicole arriving from First Give herself to give us a workshop. We began with breathing exercises and eventually moved onto improvisation (personally my favourite part of that day). Some talked about their breakfast making routine whilst others talked about their favourite subjects; I talked about what I wanted in my future. It was a lengthy list. We now know the feeling of raising our voices: it gave us more confidence in ourselves. This was the day our groups came a bit closer than they were before. This was the day we realised that we weren’t just competing and that we were also having fun. We realised we were all in this together!  

Representatives from The Sunday Centre were present at the Final to support the students

On the day of the event, members of our chosen charity, The Sunday Centre, came in. Alyson and Jane were lovely to speak to and even greater to have as support. I felt so much more confident knowing they were there to support us. Once the audience started huddling in, the nerves set in. Shaking hands, my heart rate went through the roof (metaphorically) and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to stand up in front of them. I was anxious, but pulled through. And after all it was an amazing experience! I loved performing. Although there was a small mishap mid presentation, we laughed it off and continued. If I could, I would do it all again. And I hope to pass on our charity and efforts onto the following year to be a part of First Give.

It was so fun to compete against my friends, even if we didn’t win. I still felt like a winner as I was so proud of my achievements and gained so much confidence from taking part in First Give.  

In the next upcoming years, I would like future students who take part in First Give to take on my charity. This is because not only are they an amazing charity but a small one; a small achievement for them will go a long way. I hope to stay in contact with them myself and even visit their place in the future. I would love to meet more volunteers from the Sunday Centre, knowing they all have a passion for food poverty.  

Kacia with her prizes including a £50 voucher and First Give goodie bag

Congratulations again to Kacia, and all of the inspiring young people who entered this years competition from all of us at First Give!