Following the student riots of May ‘68, five students from the University of St. Gallen decided to provide the students with a platform where they could express their thoughts, share their ideas and discuss their general dissatisfaction with the establishment. The St. Gallen Symposium was founded in 1969 and in order to commemorate the ones who fought for their voice to be heard, has taken place ever since during the month of May. 

Selecting the students who take part in the forum represented an enormous amount of work and to ensure the quality of the debate as well as the diversity in the participants pool, the St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award came to life in 1989. It was believed that it would allow some of the brightest mind around the world to gather in one place and debate on current topics with leaders of the business, political and academic sphere. 30 years later the students essay competition has become one of the greatest and most prestigious in the academic world. 

Although some details have changed throughout the years, the idea remains the same. 100 students are invited to St. Gallen for three days to expose their ideas thanks to the support of our patrons. The top finalists present their ideas on stage in front of a jury and the Leaders of Today and the three winners are awarded the St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award. But just by qualifying for a ticket to St. Gallen, the young students have the chance of joining a global community of Leaders of Tomorrow, defending their visions with leading figures in business and politics and meeting young and inspiring people with all sort of backgrounds. 

See above some former winners and inspiring minds whose creative ideas are making a difference in the world. 

As a way to ensure the development of the winners’ ideas, the Tomorrow Laboratory or TOM-LAB was created in 2014. The summer following their victory, the three students had the chance to visit a leading university and work for a week on searching innovative ways of implementing their ideas in their community. Last year’s Winners, Nat Ware (University of Oxford), Benjamin Hofmann (University of St. Gallen) and Sigin Ojulu (University of Southern California) teamed up with the MIT Media Lab and worked with experts on their original ideas.