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As It Happens

Inaugural winner of Hilary Weston Student Nonfiction Writing Contest reads her essay about being a foster child

Toronto student Ashley Ash has won the inaugural Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Student Nonfiction Writing Contest with her essay 'No One's Girl.' The Toronto student has earned herself $2500. An additional $1,000 will be given to her high school, Vaughan Road Academy. ...
CBC Radio ·
Toronto student Ashley Ash has won the inaugural Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Student Nonfiction Writing Contest with her essay 'No One's Girl.' The Toronto student has earned herself $2500. An additional $1,000 will be given to her high school, Vaughan Road Academy. 

Last June, Ms. Ash graduated from Vaughan Road Academy. As part of her studies she wrote an essay entitled "No One's Girl." In the essay, Ms. Ash bravely speaks of being abandoned at birth. She lived with eight foster families between the ages of three and ten, before finally being adopted.

'Survival doesn't always mean fighting back. Sometimes it means keeping quiet and enduring what you must to continue living.'
On a whim, she submitted the essay to the writing contest, which turned out to be a good thing, because  Ashley's essay came out on top of  four hundred entries.   The prize jury described her writing as "aphoristic and smart with one lovely sentence after another."

This week she begins studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. We invited Ms. Ash into the As It Happens studio to read from her winning essay. 

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