Grow Where You Are Planted 2005 — Winner

Sunita Gurung, aged 20, was a student in Pokhara and a longtime volunteer with the church's food distribution drives. Her winning essay described her decision to decline a study opportunity in Kathmandu to remain in Pokhara-9 and care for her ailing grandmother — framing that choice not as sacrifice but as the most direct path to the life she felt called to live. The judging panel praised the essay for its honesty and its quiet insistence that ordinary faithfulness, lived close to home, is as worthy as any grand ambition.