July 2021

This year, in light of the global pandemic, Collège International J. de La Fontaine launched its first ever national academic competition, The 2021 Lafontaine Challenge. We sent out a call to students at the elementary and high school levels, encouraging them to submit entries in the categories of English, French, science, art and music. Their goal was to communicate messages of positivity, to bring joy and hope to people who have been struggling over the last year. 

To help determine the winners of the challenge, we invited five expert judges to evaluate the student submissions: Stefano De Frè (English), Emmanuel Hessler (French), Antoine Ramier (science), Janie Renée (music) and Suh Yong (art). 

In the end, we were pleased to award seventeen student finalists over five-thousand dollars in prizes. The grand prize of five-hundred dollars was awarded to Zhihan Tu, in the category of art (elementary level). 

Thanks to the overwhelming public response and the participation of hundreds of students, The 2021 La Fontaine Challenge was a huge success! At the conclusion of the event, we donated one dollar per student registration to an amazing local charity by the name of West Island Community Shares (Partage Action). They provide financial support for local community organizations that assist people in need. 

We were so inspired by the wonderful student submissions and we wish to thank everyone for their participation as well as our sponsor BMO for its essential support.

Due to the success this year’s challenge, we are pleased to announce that we will run the competition again, next year! Stay tuned as we will be announcing the theme of The 2022 Lafontaine Challenge in the months to come!