ThE InTerNaTiOnaL CrEatIve WriTiNg ComPetItIon

I started collecting data for this activity in November because I had to complete a grant to legitimize it in Mongolia. The grant that I wrote covered certificates, medals, candy, and other small prizes for the competition. 15 aimags had signed up and all but one participated! 22 Peace Corps countries signed up all over the world and at the conclusion, 16 participated. The grant itself was difficult. It was a government grant that I had to write, with budget included and once accepted funds were raised online through crowdsurfing.  Volunteers were asked to make sure their CP's participated and that they held classes that focused on creative writing. I collaborated with international coordinators and a couple of other country coordinators to choose culturally acceptable prompts. Each grade had two prompts that they chose from. In order to make my life a bit easier in translating the slew of prompts, I had aimag (province coordinators) work with their counterparts to translate two prompts. This was helpful because this competition entails grades 6-12, University students grade 1-4 and young professionals. The certificates were all made by another PCV volunteer, and he also eventually created the Write on Competition Logo that will be used from now on for the write on competition! The competition itself had three levels. The Aimag level-coordinated by aimag pcv's...the winners essays then continued to the national level where a group of us chose first place from each grade to be sent onto the international coordinators. While Mongolia did not win at the international level, it was still fantastic that there were so many participants 1,180. 
The competition itself finished early March. Since then I have been retrieving receipts, writing up the completion report and working with Peace Corps on the final report. As of last week, I finished it. It was by far one of the hardest projects I have coordinated simply because of the grant, however it was very beneficial because before the project I had no idea how to coordinate a grant. I am pleased that I now have this skill under my belt!