Two prize-givings, one MacBook and an essay written in a second language
The first All Souls Challenge asked five open questions and took its prizes to Southampton and Leeds in person.
The All Souls Challenge is an essay competition built around demanding, open questions that seek to surface spirit and quality of thought rather than knowledge. Its first round, free to Year 12 students across the UK, closed on 17 April 2026, and the results were announced on 27 April. Entrants chose one of five questions and wrote 900 to 1,100 words.
Rather than post the prizes, we took them to the winners. Two prize-givings, at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College in Southampton and Roundhay School in Leeds, drew around 150 attendances.
Jo, at Barton Peveril, won first place: a certificate, a trophy and a MacBook Neo, and a place in the EV Fellowship. She studies Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry, sails for Team GB and hopes to read Law at Oxbridge. “I am so grateful for your generosity,” she wrote, “and have been exploring the new mac and found it very (very) cool.” Her college also presented a certificate to Amal, an honourable mention for an essay on imperialism.
Rather than post the prizes, we took them to the winners.
Zahra, at Roundhay, took third. She came to the UK from Iran in 2014 speaking no English, and wrote her essay, on AI in healthcare, in her second language. One line: “No patient will be made invisible by the systems built to serve them.” She is now an EV Fellow pursuing medicine, and has come back to us with a research project of her own, now under way with our backing.