pursuit scholarship video/essay competition

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3rd Annual Scholarship Competition

*The scholarship application is closed. Winners will be announced on September 4th.*

There is a lot at stake for the future of young Americans. Even prior to the response to the crisis we are currently facing, both political parties had already placed our nation on an unsustainable fiscal course. In the absence of decisive action from our leaders, one generation of Americans is about to leave the next generations with an unbearable financial burden.

The national debt is more than $25 trillion , soon to exceed the size of our entire economy. There is another $100 trillion in unpaid for promises coming down the pike. Report after report warns of wasteful spending and unsustainable deficits, yet year after year nothing is done by our elected leaders to address them.

If this continues, millennials and generation Z will spend their peak earning years paying for the excesses and promises they had no knowledge of or say in. However, this is not an unsolvable problem. It’s a grand opportunity. But young Americans must start speaking up now.

Pursuit will award four scholarships to incoming Freshmen, Sophomores, or Juniors enrolled in an American university or community college who produce a video (maximum 5 minutes) or write an essay (maximum 2500 words) on one or a combination of the following topics:

• Generational Theft:  How the  national debt ,  unfunded liabilities , and generational theft affects your generation.
• Government Accountability:  The importance of  transparency and  oversight in the federal government.
• A Well-Informed Public Through Objective Information:   The importance of young Americans engaging in American politics, understanding our history, civics, and free enterprise system , and the value of a well-informed public.

The winners of the essay and video competitions will win a $1,000 scholarship . The runners-ups for each category will win a $500 scholarship .

Entries will be graded on the following criteria:

• 35% Content quality
• 35% Memorable/Creativity
• 20%: Effective solution
• 10%: Production quality
• 35% Understanding/Grasp of topic
• 35% Impact/Persuasiveness and creativity
• 10%: Style, grammar, spelling

The deadline to submit your video or essay is August 21st . Scholarship winners will be announced on September 4th .

Check out examples from prior years’ winners below!

Essay Winner: Choosing to Play: Why Millennials Must Address the Federal Deficit

Video Winner: This Is Our Future

For more information contact our Executive Director Bryan Berky.

Submit through the form below or email us at  [email protected]  with your name and phone number, and put “Scholarship” in the subject line. If your video file size is over 10 MB, you must submit through email.

Pursuit is powered by the Foundation to Restore Accountability .  The scholarship may only be used for qualified tuition or required fees, books, supplies and equipment. Pursuit scholarships will be awarded on an objective and non-discriminatory basis. The scholarships will be graded-blindly based on the criteria-above. No family member of a donor, an adviser, or board member is eligible to receive a scholarship. Pursuit will never share your personal information. For more information visit our Privacy Policy .  

Any budget that adds to our national debt will hurt millenials and future generations. Something needs to be done.

Tell your friends. Like, now

Can you believe the US Government spends more money on it’s cable bill than on disaster relief?

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Scholarship

Morewithus fall 2024 scholarship competition.

**** Also check out our Social Giving Prizes for more opportunities ****

Eligibility & Categories 

• Are you currently enrolled in high school, vocational school or college? If yes, you are eligible to apply.
• Need some cash for school? MoreWithUs - Everyday Jobs is providing two $500 (five hundred dollar) Scholarships which you can use toward books, tuition, or anything else related to school expenses.

Requirements ( Essay OR Video)

• Submit a one-page essay OR a short video (about 2 minutes) about a work or volunteer experience. Either option is fine!
• Create a free MoreWithUs profile . You can also create a profile on the MoreWithUs - Everyday Jobs app, which can be downloaded for free on Apple iOS and Google Play Android .

Prompt and Submission (Essay option)

• In one standard double-spaced page, write about an Everyday Job or volunteer position you’ve had—maybe as a camp counselor, a tutor, a pizza deliverer, you name it. Tell us about the skills or lessons you learned that you hope to bring into your future ambitions or career dreams. Feel free to be creative and genuine—we want to hear about YOU.
• Email your essay to: [email protected]

Prompt and Submission (Video option)

• We’d like you to put your creativity and ingenuity to the test by making a short video detailing your most positive or negative experiences with a previously held job, internship, volunteer program, etc. Feel free to let us know what your thoughts are on the concept of working, as well. Don’t worry about the kind of position; whether you engaged in paid work, contributed to a volunteer program, interned or held a vocational position, we’d love to hear about your experiences.
• Upload your video submission through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook and share it with us via direct message OR email us a link to your video to: [email protected]
• Also follow us:
• @morewithus_everyday_jobs ( Instagram )
• @morewithus_everydayjobs ( TikTok )
• @MoreWithUs-Everyday Jobs ( YouTube )
• @MoreWithUsEverydayJobs ( Facebook)

Deadline and Winners

• Deadline: June 30, 2024
• Winners will be announced around September 1, 2024 on our social media—follow us on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn , YouTube , and TikTok .
• The winners will have their essay or video posted on MoreWithUs’ social media platforms.
• If you are selected as a winner, we will require proof of academic enrollment, such as an email verification from a school official. We also require that you give us permission to post your video or essay on our social media accounts.

Application Deadline : June 30, 2024

Past Winners and Works from the Previous Scholarship Competitions

Ellie Baker, (Martensdale St. Marys High School, Martensdale, Iowa). Essay: "Working at Rose Farm" (Spring 2024 winner).

Da’Nya Hood (Howard University, Washington, DC). Video: Working in the Hotel Industry as a Service Worker (Spring 2024 winner).

Victoria Nalepka, IMSA (illinois Math and Science Academy, Aurora, Illinoi). Essay: "Being a Youth Camp Counselor: How to Survive 100+ Energetic Campers" (Fall 2023 winner).

Karimah Mohammed (Howard University, Washington, DC). Video: Math tutor at Kumon (Fall 2023 winner).

Cesar Benemelis , Miami Coral Park Senior High School (Miami, Florida). Video about SPARKTECH Robotics Tutoring (Spring 2023 winner).

• Manmadu Alhaji, DeKalb High School (DeKalb, IL). Essay: "The Reality and Expectation of a Job" (Spring 2023 winner).

Danielle Spiegel, Drexel University. Essay on “Everyday Job of a Music Publicist: Uplifting Underappreciated Musicians” (Fall 2022 award).

Sophia Moore, University of Minnesota- Rochester. Video about personal health challenges and volunteering at the Kids Circle Foundation (Fall 2022 award).

Samantha Townsend, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Essay “My Everyday Job: Foster Child Advocate and Camp Counselor” (Spring 2022 award).

Boubacar Barrie , Albany High School (Albany, New York). Essay on “My Summer Work of Learning How to Work in Life: Overcoming the Challenges of an Everyday Job” (Spring 2022 award).

Victoria Onajobi, Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Maryland. Essay “The Everyday Job of Community Work: Housing and the Community” (Fall 2021 award).

Alvin Gutierrez, Northeastern Illinois University. Essay on “The Everyday Job of a Campus Event Coordinator: The Pursuit of Success” (Fall 2021 award).

Drew Emerson, Howard University. Essay on “Everyday Job: Law Internship and the Entertainment World” (2020 award).

• Rachel (Ray) Epstein-Shuman, Albert Einstein High School in Maryland. Essay “Everyday Job of Public Speaking and Youth Activism” (2020 award).

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How to Create a Great Scholarship Video Submission

FAQs , High School Students , Scholarship Mindset , Scholarships , Undergraduate Students

You’ve decided to apply for a scholarship that requires a video submission. Great! You’re taking advantage of creative scholarships, which is one resource that can help you pay for college or university tuition.

Given that creative scholarships are less typical than prizes requiring a personal essay, it’s certainly wise for you to research what can help you stand out in this particular kind of scholarship competition.

Creating a video submission is a great option if you feel that writing a scholarship essay isn’t your strongest skill. Since video scholarships reward you for creativity outside the written form, you may find that getting noticed and putting together a competitive application is easier for you. If this is the case, don’t shy away from the opportunity. There are plenty of scholarships out there that ask for a video submission rather than a personal statement.  

Key Items for a Great Scholarship Video Submission

Below, you’ll find some useful tips for applying to this kind of scholarship application. We’ll focus on ways that you can enhance three components of your submission:

•    The content of your video
•    The quality of your video
•    The way you present the information in your video

It’s important to know that there exists a diverse range of video submissions. Some scholarship contests may ask for a video answering a specific question or speaking about your career goals, whereas others may allow you to make any kind of video you want in response to a prompt. In any case, the points below are designed to help you win scholarship money (and if you do win, don’t forget to write a scholarship thank you letter !).

Scholarship Application Videos Should Be Unique

If you want to stand out in a video scholarship, it’s all about creating something nobody else has. It may be overstated, but it stands true: scholarship committees want to reward a student who is unique . Being unique is up to you. It can come in the form of how you say something, what you say, the visuals you decide to use, or any other creative method that makes sense to you.

The thing about uniqueness is that it’s memorable . This is exactly what you need to be when a scholarship selection committee is reviewing dozens of submissions. At the end of it all, you want to be the student that leaves a positive and unforgettable impression. Doing or saying similar things to other applicants won’t help you achieve this. For this reason, take a chance and be memorable.

Use the Right Visual Tools

When creating a video submission for a scholarship , the most important thing is to use the right audio and visual tools to create a polished feel.

First, make sure that you have the right lighting. In most cases, natural light is best, but if you can’t get enough natural light in your room, you may have to use an artificial light source. If you’re using an artificial light source, make sure that it’s not too bright or too dark—you want to see all of your face in the frame. You don’t want shadows from this light source either; they can be distracting.

Use the Right Audio Tools

The next thing is sound quality: make sure that your microphone picks up your voice clearly without any background noise like traffic or other people talking. You can also add music or other sounds overtop of your voice; just make sure that these sounds aren’t too loud or they may drown out what you’re saying.

It’s worth acknowledging that the tools above may cost money, which can be a barrier. If this is the case for you, try your best to find free resources. With a recognition that technology and video mediums are important, many libraries, high schools, and colleges/universities invest in these tools for students to use. You may be able to rent high quality equipment at no cost, which is a huge benefit. You may also consider borrowing equipment from someone you know.

Consider a Script

It goes without saying that a major step in creating a video is to decide what you’ll say.

Once you have an idea of what you want to communicate, write a script. This will help ensure that all of the important details are included in your video submission and that it flows well from beginning to end. It’s also helpful to have a script if there is a strict time limit on the video length.

Once you have written out a script, record yourself reading it aloud and listen back (or ask someone else to watch and listen). Make sure that everything sounds natural and flows smoothly from start to finish. If something doesn’t sound right, go back and tweak it until it does! You may even want to re-record certain parts if needed (like if there’s a mistake or pause). You may also consider experimenting with different camera angles or lighting effects during certain parts of your script if you think it can enhance your message.

Video Submissions Can Use Free B-Roll from Websites

When creating a video submission for a scholarship, you can consider using free B-roll resources.

B-roll is the footage that goes along with your main narrative as it helps to illustrate what you are saying. It can be shots of the location where you completed your work or it could be clips of people doing what they do in their day-to-day lives.

The important thing to remember when using B-roll is that it should support the narrative and not detract from it. If you use the wrong kind of B-roll, then you may end up sending out an application that confuses your audience rather than convincing them that you deserve a scholarship.

When looking for free B-roll resources, consider sites like Pixabay  or Pexels , which have high quality images and videos that are free for personal use.

Edit! Postproduction Will Help Your Scholarship Video

Video submissions are a great way to showcase your talents, but they can be challenging to produce. When you’re working on a video submission for a scholarship, you want it to look good and sound great. But how do you make sure that happens?

One of the best ways is by editing. If you spend time thinking about how you want your video to look, and then take the time to edit it accordingly, then you’ll have a much better chance of winning!

Even if your content is great and you have the best camera in the world, if your video is poorly edited it will look unprofessional. Editing can make a huge difference in quality and professionalism.

One major focus, for example, can be ensuring that cuts between shots are smooth and natural to your viewer. It’s much better when everything flows together smoothly so that your audience doesn’t notice abrupt transitions when one shot ends and another begins.

If you’re using your phone or a webcam to shoot your video, there are plenty of free apps and YouTube tutorials that can help you get the most out of your videos. The investment of your time in postproduction editing is worth every penny—especially when those pennies are going towards something important like your education!

Final Tip: Get Started on Your Scholarship Video Application Today

Preparation, planning, and a little bit of strategy go a long way toward producing a winning scholarship video that’s likely to impress judges. Although every scholarship judge is different and will have different expectations, the above tips should ensure that you are approaching your video with a full understanding of what it takes to get the most out of a scholarship opportunity.

Now that you have a leg up on the competition, it’s time to get started. Don’t waste another moment. There are many awards out there that can help fund your academic and career goals. You never know if you’ll be a scholarship winner until you try. Submit as soon as you can! Good luck!

Christopher Grafos, Ph.D., is the founder and chief scholarship mentor at BridgesEDU Scholarships.

He’s a first-generation university graduate whose life was transformed by education and winning scholarships. 

Scholarships help students financially, but they also help advance a student’s career. It’s his life’s work to champion this message and share the secrets to finding and winning scholarships. 

Read more about Christopher’s journey here . 

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Pursuit Scholarship Competition

Get detailed information on Pursuit Scholarship Competition and its eligibility criteria, application deadline, rewards and more.

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Scholarship Overview

Deadline: 08/07/2023

Email: [email protected]

[email protected]

Website: Link

Awards Available: 4 awards

About the Scholarship

Eligibility criteria.

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Pursuit will award four scholarships to incoming Freshmen, Sophomores, or Juniors enrolled in an American university or community college who produce a video (maximum 5 minutes) or write an essay (maximum 2500 words) on one or a combination of the following topics.

• Generational Theft: How the national debt, unfunded liabilities, and generational theft affects your generation.
• Government Accountability: The importance of transparency and oversight in the federal government.
• A Well-Informed Public Through Objective Information:  The importance of young Americans engaging in American politics, understanding our history, civics, and free enterprise system, and the value of a well-informed public. Min Award: $500 Max Award: $1000 Deadline: 2018-08-01 Sponsoring Organization Pursuit P.O. Box 52351 Tulsa, OK 74152 Phone: 314-255-9489  

Web: www.ourpursuit.com/pursuit-scholarship-competition Email: [email protected]    Contact Name: Adam Kazda  

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Sunday, May 31, 2020

Pursuit announces 3rd annual scholarship competition; video or essay on debt, accountabilty issues.

• Generational Theft : How the national debt , unfunded liabilities , and generational theft affects your generation.
• Government Accountability : The importance of transparency and oversight in the federal government.
• A Well-Informed Public Through Objective Information :  The importance of young Americans engaging in American politics, understanding our history, civics, and free enterprise system , and the value of a well-informed public.
• 35% Content quality
• 35% Memorable/Creativity
• 20%: Effective solution
• 10%: Production quality
• 35% Understanding/Grasp of topic
• 35% Impact/Persuasiveness and creativity
• 10%: Style, grammar, spelling

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Video Essay Scholarship Contest

*The deadline to submit an entry is 11:59PM April 26, 2024. Please continue to follow TFND social media for more updates.*

Tobacco Free North Dakota announces the return of our annual Video Essay Scholarship Contest for all North Dakota high school seniors. TFND is a statewide nonprofit that advocates for policies to prevent youth initiation to tobacco and nicotine products with the goal of creating North Dakota’s first tobacco free generation. We hope this scholarship contest encourages youth to youth education and advocacy, while providing TFND an opportunity to recognize and reward those efforts. Here’s how it works!

1. Create a 1–3 minute YouTube video based on one of these Tobacco Free ND topics. • The tobacco industry wants to bring smoking back into public places. Interview your family, friends, and community members about what it was like when there was smoking in places like restaurants, offices, and even the legislature. • You get to make the laws for a day- what laws do you make relating to tobacco products? • Tobacco products are a leading cause of pollution worldwide- show us how tobacco pollution affects your community and what can be done to stop it. • Tobacco companies spend millions of dollars every year marketing their products to the next generation of potential customers- Youth. How would you convince young people to stay tobacco/nicotine free?

2. Email your video entry, along with all completed forms attached, by 11:59pm April 26, 2024 to [email protected]. YOU MUST SUBMIT THE VIDEO FILE, NOT YOUTUBE LINK! A committee will select the top video. Here are some examples of past submissions

You don’t need fancy cameras to make great videos. Read our 2024-Video-Essay-Scholarship-Press-Packet  for great tips on how make a make a winning video!

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VIDEO ESSAY CONTEST

Here at the Marcus Harris Foundation, we not only strive to raise awareness of various cultural, political, and social issues, we aim to provide effective solutions for those affected by them. To help us do so, we've created a video essay contest to address these issues with millions of viewers worldwide, through social media, blogs, and other online platforms.

The topic of this cycle's contest:

Ending the school-to-prison pipeline.

The winning video will not only address the problems with the school-to-prison pipeline, but also propose how to eliminate the various aspects of it and reverse its effects throughout the community.

The contest winner will receive a $500 cash prize.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Eligibility.

Qualified applicants preferably have a demonstrated history of community activism. Applicants under the age of 18 must provide written permission from at least one parent or guardian.

Videos must be no more than 3 minutes long. Your video may feature a variety of different styles, including but not limited to documentary, fiction, live action, or animation. Any profane or sexually explicit submissions will not be considered. 

To submit, please send the following to [email protected] :

- A copy of your video in either MP4 or MOV format

- Please make the subject line of your message: "Video Essay Contest - Pipeline"

- Your name, mailing address, and phone number

- A brief list of all volunteer or community activities in which you've participated

Each submission will be judged based on the following factors:

- Originality

- Creativity 

- Effectiveness in addressing the topic

The winning video will be posted on our website, YouTube channel, and promoted on our social media profiles.

All entries must be received by no later than midnight (EST) on Sunday, June 30, 2019. The winner will be announced in July 2019.

© 2023 The Marcus Harris Foundation. All Rights Reserved. EIN: 81-4262845

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Welcome to the 2024 Breakthrough Junior Challenge. Applications are now OPEN!

All applications and submission videos must be received by June 25, 2024 at 11:59 PM PDT .

• $250,000 Post-secondary scholarship
• $50,000 Prize for your teacher
• $100,000 Breakthrough Science Lab

The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is an annual, global science video competition for high-school students. It was founded in 2015 by Julia and Yuri Milner .

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World Historian Student Essay Competition

Congratulations to Joshua Hangartner of La Jolla Country Day School, the winner of the 2023 World Historian Student Essay Competition for his essay, "World History: A Vehicle for Understanding Ourselves."

2023 World Historian Student Essay Competition Winner: Joshua Hangartner (La Jolla Country Day School)

• The WHA is pleased to announce that Joshua Hangartner of La Jolla Country Day School (La Jolla, CA) is the winner of the 2023 World Historian Essay Competition for his outstanding essay, "World History: A Vehicle for Understanding Ourselves." Focusing on its broad and deep complexities, Mr. Hangartner ably demonstrates how World History's vast and complex scope connects us personally to the sweeping historical themes that shaped the present day and serves as a "uniquely powerful tool" that allows us to discover ourselves in an incredibly complicated world. Congratulations, Joshua!

The World Historian Student Essay Competition is an international competition open to students enrolled in grades  K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, and those in home-study programs. Membership in the World History Association is not a requirement for submission. Past winners may not compete in the same category again.  Finalist essays will be checked against AI internet components and will be automatically disqualified should stock answers be detected.

The World History Association established this $500 prize to recognize young scholars. A one-year membership in the WHA will also be included with each prize.

Each competitor will submit an essay that addresses one of the following topics and discuss how it relates to you personally and to World History:  Your view of a family story related to a historical event or your personal family cultural background, or an issue of personal relevance or specific regional history/knowledge, such as "My ancestor walked with Abraham Lincoln from Illinois to fight in the Black Hawk War of 1832." 

The committee will judge papers according to the following criteria:

• clear thesis;
• elaboration on the thesis with specific, concrete, personal example(s);
• evidence of critical-thinking, such as synthesis and evaluation, when reflecting on the essay question;
• organization and fluency; and
• overall effectiveness of the student’s ability to communicate his or her personal connection with the study of world history—in other words, how well has the student described the experience of being changed by a better understanding of world history?

To view some of our past winning essays, please click on the links below.

2023 Paper Prize Winner

2019 Paper Prize Winner

2018 Paper Prize Winner

2017 Paper Prize Winner

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Length & format.

Length:  Submissions for the  K–12  World Historian Award should be approximately 1,000 words.

Formatting:  Number all pages except for the title page. All pages are to be double-spaced. Use 12-point Times New Roman Font. Margins are to be 1 inch left and right, and top and bottom.

Submissions must be composed in Microsoft Word.

The author’s identity is to appear nowhere on the paper.

A separate, unattached page should accompany the paper, identifying the author, title of paper, home address, telephone number, e-mail address, and name of school.

Papers that do not adhere to these guidelines will be disqualified.

Entries must be emailed or postmarked by the annual deadline of 1 May.

Winning papers will be announced during the summer.

The  WHA  reserves the right to publish in the  World History Bulletin  any essay (or portion thereof) submitted to the competition. It will do so solely at its discretion, but full acknowledgment of authorship will be given. If someone’s essay is published in whole or in part, the author will receive three (3) copies of the  Bulletin.

E-mail submission

Send the following materials as separate attachments (formatted in  MS  Word) in the same e-mail, with the subject line  World Historian Student Essay :

• the paper, and
• a page with identifying information (author, title of paper, home address, telephone number, e-mail address, and name of school).

E-mail to:  Susan Smith <[email protected]> .

Postal submission

Send five copies of the paper and five copies of the page with identifying information. In the lower left hand corner on the front of the envelope write:  World Historian Student Essay.

Susan Smith Maple Grove Senior High 9800 Fernbrook Lane  N. Maple Grove,  MN  55369-9747

WORLD HISTORIAN STUDENT ESSAY COMPETITION COMMITTEE:

• Susan Smith, chair
• Paul Richgruber

PAST WINNERS

• Joshua Hangartner, La Jolla Country Day School (La Jolla, CA) "World History: A Vehicle for Understanding Ourselves"
• Amanda Zhao, Pacific Ridge School (Carlsbad, CA) “History: An Ode to the Bricks of Progress”
• Akram Elkouraichi, Yonkers Middle High School (Yonkers, NY) “The Realization of Impermanence: Ephemerality in World History as a Conceptual Framework”
• Steven Chen, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School (Vancouver, BC, Canada) “A Human Story: World History as an Optimist”
• Juliana Boerema, Cary Christian School (Cary, North Carolina) “Brilliant Painting: How the Study of World History Changes Perspective”
• Ahmad Aamir, Lahore Grammar School (Lahore, Pakistan) “Learning from History: Cooperation, Belief, Scholarship, & Words”
• Vivian Liu, International School of Beijing (Beijing, China) “History: Bread of the World”
• Vanessa Yan, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School (Bradenton, Florida) “World History: The Great Macroscope”
• Rachel Hughes, Webber Academy (Calgary, Canada), “Fostering a Universal Understanding of World History is the Key to a Brighter Tomorrow”
• Campbell Munson, The Episcopal School of Dallas, “How History Has Affected My Worldview: Economies, Migration, Causality and Disease”
• Jacob Cooper, North Oconee High School (Bogart, Georgia), “World History: The Basis for Self-Determination, Democracy, and Religion“
• Luke J. Hamilton, Sword Academy (Bridgeport, Nebraska), “The Present: Living History”
• David Kim, Wydown Middle School ( St.  Louis), “History: The Shadow of the World”
• Elizabeth Mello, Dartmouth High School (Dartmouth, Massachusetts), “Out of Many Threads, One Cloth”

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Watch our Explainer Video

How Our Essay Competition Works

Submit your entry.

Research and write your essay and then submit it, along with your references, via our short form below.

Entries close at 9pm UK time on 15th April 2024 !

Awards Ceremony

All shortlisted entrants and their parents and teachers will be invited to attend our Awards Ceremony in May 2024, where the winners will be announced.

Over £100,000 Worth of Academic Prizes

Free Conference place

The first thousand students who are successfully shortlisted will be awarded a free place at one of our OxBright Conferences (worth £95) in the autumn. Alternatively, you can put this credit towards an Online Course or Online Internship .

All shortlisted entrants and their parents and teachers will be invited to attend our online Awards Ceremony in May 2024, where the winners will be announced.

Matilda Winner, History, 2023

I’m both thrilled and flabbergasted at the outcome of the competition.

Winning this competition undoubtedly made me feel much more confident in researching and writing in my field from now on, opening a lot of new doors for me!

Regina Winner, Psychology, 2023

I’m very happy and grateful to win such a meaningful competition. I truly learned a lot.

My advice to anyone considering entering is to try to think deeper and further about your chosen topic.

Alex Winner, Philosophy, 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

Entering the essay competition, how will entering the oxbright essay competition help me in the future, why do you run an essay competition.

OxBright is about giving students the edge to help them to succeed, find their purpose and make a difference in the world.

We think it’s the greatest time to be alive, but we’re aware that young people face challenges their predecessors didn’t. We’re passionate about encouraging students to be optimistic about the future by being active thinkers interested in collaborating to create a better future for the long-term. You can read more about this in our Worldview .

Our essay competition combines these two elements – encouraging students to think actively about the future, and giving them tools to help them to succeed.

Who can enter?

Anyone can enter – the only eligibility criteria is that you must be aged between 15-18. You don’t need to have previously joined an OxBright programme in order to take part.

Kindly be aware that to be eligible to take up any of the free places offered as prizes, such as our online courses/internships, winning students must be between the ages of 15 and 18 at the commencement of the programme.

Can I write more than one essay?

Sorry, we only accept one essay per student in each Essay Competition. This is due to the volume of essays we receive.

Can I enter jointly with a friend?

No, we can only accept entries from individuals, and it’s important to make sure that your work is entirely your own.

Is there a fee to enter the OxBright Essay Competition?

No, the essay competition is completely free to enter.

When is the entry deadline?

The deadline has been extended, and is now the 15th April 2024, at 9pm.

Are you connected to any university?

No, OxBright is an independent education organisation which is not connected to any university.

Where can I see the results of the Essay Competition 2023?

You can see the results of our previous Essay Competition, including the winning essay in full, here .

Writing Your Essay

What are the subject categories i can enter for, how long should my essay be.

There are three parts to the essay:

• Essay title: the title of your essay can be up to 100 characters long, including spaces
• Essay: your essay can have up to 3,800 characters , including spaces (this is about 500 words). This includes everything you write, like the main text and in-text citations. In-text citations are little notes you put in your essay to show where your information came from. For example, if you quote something from a book by John Smith, you would add (Smith, 2010, p. 50) right after the quote. These citations are part of your word count, so make sure to include them
• References: as for references, there’s no word limit – you can include as many as you need! These are important for showing where your information came from. Please use the Harvard Referencing Style for your references (you can find how to do this in the guidelines provided here ). This won’t count towards your essay character limit, so please list all the sources you used

What are the evaluation criteria?

We’ll be assessing essays on the following criteria:

• Fluency of written English
• Relevance to the question
• Creativity and originality of ideas
• Use of evidence or examples
• Relevance to the OxBright Worldview

Should I use references?

Please make sure to include references to your sources, using the Harvard Referencing Style (guidelines here ).

What makes a good essay?

Make sure to read our criteria carefully (you can find it in the FAQ above).

We want essays that are thoroughly researched, packed with examples and solid evidence. What really catches our attention are essays with unique analysis. So, we’re not just interested in essays that simply describe things – we want your thoughts, analysis, and fresh ideas.

Don’t forget, it’s crucial to use and mention trustworthy sources for the evidence you provide.

Do you accept personal or descriptive essays?

We’re looking for clear, concise and compelling answers to the question above, written and formatted in an academic style. Please don’t submit personal essays or creative writing samples.

What Happens Next?

When will i hear the results.

We’ll be in touch within two weeks of your entry to let you know whether or not you’ve been shortlisted (all entrants who meet our core standards of relevance and coherence will be shortlisted).

All shortlisted entrants and their parents and teachers will be invited to our Awards Ceremony in May 2024, when the winners in each subject category will be announced.

How are essays assessed?

You can read about the criteria we use to assess your essay in the FAQ above (“What are the evaluation criteria?”).

Essays are assessed using our proprietary system which combines a mixture of technology and personal assessment. Essays which are deemed to be plagiarised or be written by AI will be rejected and our decision on this is final.

There are two stages to our assessment process:

Shorlisting Our first stage assessment reviews whether the essay is relevant and coherent. If so, your essay will be shortlisted, you will be offered a free place at an OxBright Conference and you will be invited to the Awards Ceremony.

Awards Shortlised essays are then given further assessment by our panel. This includes a review of the References. In the application form, we ask for a the name of a teacher who is familiar with your academic work. If your essay is nominated for an Award, we will ask this teacher to confirm that the essay was genuinely written by you.

What are the prizes?

Please click here for more information about the prizes and awards.

Why is the overall prize a place at Oxford Scholastica in 2025, not 2024?

Will i receive feedback.

Unfortunately, due to the volume of entries received, we are unable to provide feedback on essays.

Does everyone who enters get a free place at a Conference?

The first thousand students to who make a valid submission and are shortlisted will be invited to attend an OxBright Conference of their choice, free of charge (worth £95). Conference subjects include Business, Medicine, Law and Psychology. It is optional to attend a Conference.

Alternatively, you’ll be able to choose to apply the £95 credit toward another programme with us.

Does everyone receive a certificate?

Only students who win one of the awards receive a certificate. Certificates are issued in online format.

Do you publish the names of the award winners?

Yes, award winners will be published on our website after the Awards Ceremony.

How can I pass on some feedback about the essay competition?

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Regions Riding Forward® Scholarship Contest

Their Story. Your Voice.

Your voice is your own. But it's also been impacted by others. Who, we wonder, has inspired you? Let us know by entering the Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest. 

You could win an $8,000 college scholarship

For the opportunity to win an $8,000 scholarship, submit a video or written essay about an individual you know personally (who lives in your community) who has inspired you and helped you build the confidence you need to achieve your goals.

The details

The 2024 Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest consists of four (4) separate Quarterly Contests - one for each calendar quarter of 2024. Regions is awarding four $8,000 scholarships through each Quarterly Contest.

Each Quarterly Contest has its own separate entry period, as provided in the chart below.

The entry deadline for each Quarterly Contest is 11:59:59 PM Central Time on the applicable Quarterly Contest period end date (set forth in the chart above).

No purchase or banking relationship required.

Regions believes in supporting the students whose passion and actions every day will continue to make stories worth sharing. That’s why we have awarded over $1 million in total scholarships to high school and college students.

How to enter, 1. complete an online quarterly contest application.

Enter the Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest by completing a Quarterly Contest application.  The second Quarterly Contest runs from April 1, 2024 through June 30, 2024. Complete and save all requested information. 

2. Prepare your Written Essay or Video Essay

For each Quarterly Contest, the topic of your Written Essay or Video Essay (your “Essay Topic”) must be an individual you know personally, who lives in your community. Your Written Essay or Video Essay must address how the individual you have selected as your Essay Topic has inspired you and helped you build the confidence you need to achieve your goals.

Written Essay and Video Essay submissions must meet all of the requirements described in the contest Official Rules. Your Written Essay or Video Essay must be (i) in English, (ii) your own original work, created solely by you (and without the use of any means of artificial intelligence (“AI”)), and (iii) the exclusive property of you alone.

Written Essays must be 500 words or less. You can write your Written Essay directly in the application, or you can copy and paste it into the appropriate area in the application form.

Video Essay submissions must be directly uploaded to the contest application site. Video Essays must be no more than 3 minutes in length and no larger than 1 GB. Only the following file formats are accepted: MP4, MPG, MOV, AVI, and WMV. Video Essays must not contain music of any kind nor display any illegal, explicit, or inappropriate material, and Video Essays must not be password protected or require a log-in/sign-in to view. You must upload your Video Essay to the application, and you may not submit your Video Essay in DVD or other physical form. (Video Essays submitted via mail will not be reviewed or returned.)

Tips to Record Quality Videos on a Smartphone:

• Don’t shoot vertical video. Computer monitors have landscape-oriented displays, so shoot your video horizontally.
• Use a tripod. Even small movements can make a big difference when editing.
• Don’t use zoom. If you need to get a close shot of the subject, move closer as zooming can cause pixilation.
• Use natural lighting. Smartphone lighting can wash out your video.

3. Review and submit your Quarterly Contest application

Review your information on your Quarterly Application (and check the spelling of a Written Essay) and submit your entry by 11:59:59 p.m. Central Time on the applicable Quarterly Contest period end date. The second Quarterly Contest period end date is June 30, 2024.

4. Await notification

Winning entries are selected by an independent panel of judges who are not affiliated with Regions. If your entry is selected as a Quarterly Contest winner, you will need to respond to ISTS with the required information.

Eligibility

For purposes of this contest:

• The “Eligible States” are defined as the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
• An “accredited college” is defined as a nonprofit, two- or four-year college or university located within one of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia.

To be eligible to enter this contest and to win an award in a Quarterly Contest, at the time of entry, you must:

• Be a legal U.S. resident of one of the Eligible States.
• Be age 16 or older.
• Have at least one (1) year (or at least 18 semester hours) remaining before college graduation.
• If you are not yet in college, begin your freshman year of college no later than the start of the 2025 – 2026 college academic school year.
• As of your most recent school enrollment period, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0 in school (and if no GPA is provided at school, be in “good standing” or the equivalent thereof in school).

View Official Rules

NO PURCHASE OR BANKING RELATIONSHIP REQUIRED. PURCHASE OR BANKING RELATIONSHIP WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. The 2024 Regions Riding Forward Scholarship Contest (the “Contest”) consists of four (4) separate quarterly contests (each a “Quarterly Contest”): (1) the “Q-1 Contest;” (2) the “Q-2 Contest;” (3) the “Q-3 Contest;” and (4) the “Q-4 Contest.” The Q-1 Contest begins on 02/01/24 and ends on 03/31/24; the Q-2 Contest begins on 04/01/24 and ends on 06/30/24; the Q-3 Contest begins on 07/01/24 and ends on 09/30/24; and the Q-4 Contest begins on 10/01/24 and ends on 12/31/24. (For each Quarterly Contest, entries must be submitted and received by 11:59:59 PM CT on the applicable Quarterly Contest period end date.) To enter and participate in a particular Quarterly Contest, at the time of entry, you must: (a) be a legal U.S. resident of one of the Eligible States; (b) be 16 years of age or older; (c) have at least one (1) year (or at least 18 semester hours) remaining before college graduation; (d) (if you are not yet in college) begin your freshman year of college no later than the start of the 2025 – 2026 college academic school year; and (e) as of your most recent school enrollment period, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0 in school (and if no grade point average is provided at school, be in “good standing” or the equivalent thereof in school). (For purposes of Contest, the “Eligible States” are defined as the states of AL, AR, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MS, MO, NC, SC, TN and TX.) Visit regions.com/ridingforward for complete Contest details, including eligibility and Written Essay and Video Essay requirements and Official Rules. (Limit one (1) entry per person, per Quarterly Contest.) For each Quarterly Contest, eligible entries will be grouped according to form of entry (Written Essay or Video Essay) and judged by a panel of independent, qualified judges. A total of four (4) Quarterly Contest Prizes will be awarded in each Quarterly Contest, consisting of two (2) Quarterly Contest Prizes for the Written Essay Entry Group and two (2) Quarterly Contest Prizes for the Video Essay Entry Group. Each Quarterly Contest Prize consists of a check in the amount of $8,000 made out to winner’s designated accredited college. (Limit one (1) Quarterly Contest Prize per person; a contestant is permitted to win only one (1) Quarterly Contest Prize through the Contest.) Sponsor: Regions Bank, 1900 Fifth Ave. N., Birmingham, AL 35203.

© 2024 Regions Bank. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank. The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

2023 Winners

High school:.

• Amyrrean Acoff
• Leon Aldridge
• Kharis Andrews
• Colton Collier
• Indya Griffin
• Christopher Hak
• Aquil Hayes
• Jayden Haynes
• McKenna Jodoin
• Paris Kelly
• Liza Latimer
• Dylan Lodle
• Anna Mammarelli
• Karrington Manley
• Marcellus Odum
• Gautami Palthepu
• Melody Small
• Lauryn Tanner
• Joshua Wilson
• Mohamed Ali
• Kayla Bellamy
• Lauren Boxx
• Alexandria Brown
• Samuel Brown
• Thurston Brown
• Conner Daehler
• Tsehai de Souza
• Anjel Echols
• Samarion Flowers
• Trinity Griffin
• Kristina Hilton
• Ryan Jensen
• Miracle Jones
• Shaniece McGhee
• Chelby Melvin
• Lamiya Ousley
• Kiera Phillips
• Gabrielle Pippins
• Ethan Snead
• Sydney Springs
• Kirsten Tilford
• Tamira Weeks
• Justin Williams

2022 Winners

• Paul Aucremann
• William Booker
• Robyn Cunningham
• Kani'ya Davis
• Oluwatomi Dugbo
• Lillian Goins
• Parker Hall
• Collin Hatfield
• Gabrielle Izu
• Kylie Lauderdale
• Jacob Milan
• Jackson Mitchell
• Carmen Moore
• Madison Morgan
• Kaden Oquelí-White
• Kaylin Parks
• Brian Perryman
• De'Marco Riggins
• Brianna Roundtree
• Sydney Russell
• Carlie Spore
• Morgan Standifer
• Ionia Thomas
• Ramaya Thomas
• Jaylen Toran
• Amani Veals
• Taylor Williams
• Alana Wilson
• Taryn Wilson
• Aryaunna Armstrong
• Hannah Blackwell
• T'Aneka Bowers
• Naomi Bradley
• Arianna Cannon
• Taylor Cline
• Catherine Cummings
• Margaret Fitzgerald
• Chloe Franklin
• Camryn Gaines
• Thomas Greer
• Kayla Helleson
• Veronica Holmes
• Logan Kurtz
• Samuel Lambert
• Jaylon Muchison
• Teresa Odom
• Andrew Payne
• Carey Price
• Emily SantiAnna
• Curtis Smith
• Jered Smith
• Mariah Standifer
• Maura Taylor
• Anna Wilkes

Essay Competition: Win a 100% Scholarship With Immerse Education

Take part in the Immerse Education Essay Competition for your chance to win a full or partial scholarship to our university and career preparation programmes

12th September 2024: Submission Deadline

Competition Open

full scholarships Awarded each year

entries each year

Share Your Success

Scholarship Award Certificate PDFs For Winners

What is the Essay Competition?

The Immerse Education Essay Competition provides the opportunity for students aged 13-18 to submit essay responses to a question of their choice relating to a subject of interest. There are over twenty questions to choose from which can be found in our full Essay Competition Guide. 10 winners will receive a 100% scholarship to study with us at a world-leading university of their choosing. Outstanding runners-up also receive partial scholarships.

23rd February 2024

Competition opens

12th September 2024

Competition closes

17th October 2024

Results announced

January, July & August 2025

Programme dates

Who Can Apply?

• The Immerse Education Essay Competition is open to students worldwide of all nationalities. You must be aged between 13-18 during your chosen programme.

10 winners will receive a 100% scholarship. Take a look at previous essay competition winners.

Runners Up will be awarded partial scholarships of up to 50% to study their chosen subject with Immerse. The number of runners-up will be determined by the number of entries received and the quality of the work submitted. The next category of entrants who are not runner-ups receive partial scholarships worth up to 20%.

Our Guest Judges

Programmes our scholarship can be redeemed against, reviews and winners, what do our alumni say.

I loved the little conversations we had when a question about the topic turned into explanations of the ethical, personal and economic issues that surround medicine. Overall, I found my lessons very beneficial. I know so much more about medicine and its different subsets, but also about what a career in medicine really looks like.

Immerse alumni, and scholarship winner

I could see that the essay competition was an incredible opportunity for international students to win a scholarship purely based on merit. More importantly, after doing some more research, I realised that the process for choosing winners was incredibly fair, that everyone would get an equal chance regardless of their socio-economic background, race, nationality, gender, etc.

100% Scholarship Winner

I enrolled because I wanted to expand my knowledge of physics and meet other people with the same interests as myself. Both of which I was successful in doing! My favourite aspect of the programme was the small class sizes – this helped both the tutor and students with learning and understanding the subject.

Immerse was very fun as well as useful. You were able to experience what it would be like if you studied here for university. The most beneficial part of the course was being able to see what International Relations is like, and it helped me decide what I want to study in the future.

My school invited everyone to participate, and the further I read about Immerse Education, the more motivated I was to enter the competition. Not only did I have the chance to study a subject I love, I would also be able to expand on my essay skills since writing has always been a passion of mine.

I really wanted to go to medicine summer school this year, and so I literally was searching for summer school opportunities and Immerse is one that came up. Through this, I found out about the essay competition and I decided to submit an answer. Immerse was very helpful whilst I was writing my essay, especially with things like the referencing guide.

I’m 16, so I’ve never written an academic essay before, so it was really important that I actually knew what I was doing in the first place and it definitely helped me with that. The programme so far has been very enriching. It’s helped me understand more about medicine and made me realise that this is what I want to do in life. Meeting new friends, tutors, and the mentors, they’re all amazing. My favourite things on the programme have been the evening activities, like murder mystery night. I am so happy to be able to have seen people that are like minded, and competitive as well. I really think that the tutors and the mentors have all been very supportive of me.

Academic Insights, Medicine

Hear From a Previous Scholarship Winner

The Immerse Education Essay Competition is open to entries from young people aged 13-18 interested in all subjects, from Architecture to Medicine, Creative Writing to Film Studies. However, students aged 18 should only submit an essay if they will still be 18 when the programmes the scholarships are valid for begin.

To confirm, if participants are successful, they should be aged between 13 and 18 at the start of their programme.

This current round of the essay competition is valid for 2025 Immerse Education programmes.

Immerse provides a full essay-writing guide which is sent to your email address once you register your interest in the competition. This guide includes a full list of essay questions, our essay specification, top tips for writing an academic essay, referencing guidance, our terms and conditions and guidance on plagiarism! Registering interest also ensures that you’re on track to submitting your essay on time, through a series of helpful reminder prompts. To support further you can register for our  webinars , which offer top tips and guidance with essay writing from our experts. You are also welcome to explore our  creative writing resources .

Funded scholarship to study abroad:  Our essay competition offers students like you the chance to win a full or partial scholarship to one of our Online Programmes or residential programmes in locations such as Oxford, Cambridge, Sydney, London and more.

Ongoing support from Immerse while you write:  Full support from our team as you write your essay, with free guides and top tips to help you along the way. Sign up to receive our full Essay competition Guide and free tips and tricks as you write. You can also follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok to get more useful essay writing tips.

Demonstrate what you know:  The competition is a chance for you to demonstrate your content knowledge by answering advanced university-style questions.

Build your skills and knowledge:  The opportunity to apply and advance your essay writing skills. You will likely learn something new in the process!

Develop your self-discipline:  A chance to strengthen your self-discipline as you commit to a challenging project and complete it from start to finish.

If you win a scholarship via the Essay Competition 2024/2025 you can use it toward any residential course in any of our locations. Use your scholarship to enrol on one of our renowned online programmes* or enriching in-person/residential summer school programmes in cultural melting pots such as Cambridge, Oxford, London or Sydney and more. * Essay competition schorlaships cannot be redeemed against online Intensive programmes.

No, there is no entry fee and you do not need to have already enrolled onto any of our programmes to take part in the essay competition.

The deadline for all essay entries for the last round of the competition is 4th January 2024. The next deadline will most likely be on 12th September 2024.

Register to receive free Essay Competition guidance

The Immerse Education Essay Competition provides the opportunity for students aged 13-18 to submit essay responses to a pre-set question relating to their chosen subject. Register interest to receive your guide with the comprehensive list of questions including:

• – Essay Specifications
• – Top Tips for Writing an Academic Essay
• – Referencing Guidance
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The Elie Wiesel Foundation Prize in Ethics

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The Prize in Ethics Essay Contest, established in 1989 by Professor Elie Wiesel and his wife, Marion Wiesel, is an annual competition that challenges college students to address the urgent and complex ethical issues that confront the modern world. Since its inception, thousands of young people have written essays for consideration.

Led by a lifelong pursuit and passion for ethical leadership, Dov Seidman became the exclusive partner of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Prize in Ethics in 2008, as the institution was in its 20th year of celebrating ethical decision making among America’s youth. Dov has since partnered with the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity to ensure Elie Wiesel’s legacy lives on by offering the Prize as part of the work of The HOW Institute for Society, a non-profit organization that seeks to build and nurture a culture of moral leadership , principled decision-making and values-based behavior.

“It is a privilege to partner with the Foundation on its Prize so that together we can help shape a generation of young ethical leaders with the ability to consider the ethical dimensions of our world and the courage to act on their convictions.”

About the Prize in Ethics

The Prize in Ethics Essay Contest encourages students to write thought provoking personal essays that raise questions, single out issues and are rational arguments for ethical action. Undergraduate students in their junior or senior year of studies are invited to submit essays 3,000-4,000 words in length. A distinguished committee reviews the essays, and a jury headed by Marion Wiesel chooses the winners.

Winning essays present intensely personal stories, originality, imagination, and clear articulation and genuine grappling with an ethical dilemma.

To learn more about the Elie Wiesel Foundation and the Prize in Ethics please click here .

Prize in Ethics, Click here to read the 2022 winning essays

An Ethical Compass

A collection of winning Ethics Prize Essays from the first 20+ years of the Prize  

Available on Amazon

National Essay Contest Winner Saw ‘Firsthand’ the ‘Great Riches’ of Faithful Catholic Education

While many students go off to college and lose their faith and joy, one college-bound student saw how his older siblings’ faith was strengthened and lives were enriched by attending a faithful Catholic college—and now he, too, will be attending a faithful college with a $5,000 scholarship.

Jacob Kristine, a homeschooled student from Pennsylvania, is the winner of The Cardinal Newman Society’s 2023 Essay Scholarship Contest . His $5,000 scholarship will be applied toward his first year at Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., and he is eligible for continuing scholarships from Christendom in subsequent years.

“My siblings have bestowed upon me the great riches of understanding what gifts a truly Catholic college can impart to a young person. I have seen firsthand how this pursuit of Truth leads to a life that is Good and wholesome and sincerely promotes seeking the Creator of Beauty,” explained Kristine in his award-winning essay, which can be read in its entirety here .

“The friendships my siblings forged throughout their four years among like-minded followers of Christ have challenged them to grow in wisdom, remain faithful to God through worship and devotional practices, and encouraged virtuous living without sacrificing fun, laughter, and an abundantly joy-filled life—then and now,” Kristine continued.

The topic for this year’s contest was to reflect on the following question: “The Cardinal Newman Society recently released a  7-minute video  on the advantages of choosing a faithful Catholic college. Pick a key point(s) or theme(s) from the video and explain why attending a Newman Guide college will have special value for you.” Essays were judged by how well they demonstrated appreciation for faithful Catholic education, as well as the quality of the writing.

The judges were thoroughly impressed with Kristine’s essay, which emphasized the academic, spiritual, and social life at faithful Catholic colleges. Kristine is the fifth of eight children in his family and has been homeschooled his entire life. Since third grade, he has served as an altar server at his Catholic parish and worked at the church cemetery as a groundskeeper. He has also enjoyed competing in sports, especially cross country and track and field, which he hopes to continue next year at Christendom.

Kristine explained how The Newman Guide and The Cardinal Newman Society’s “Recruit Me” program proved helpful in his college search:

Without the Newman Guide, I am not so sure that my college search would have been as comprehensive and complete as it turned out. The “Recruit Me” program was a fantastic blessing, as it allowed so many colleges to reach out to me and provide information that I could digest and review. I would then turn to the Newman Guide to further enlighten me about the most vital and important aspects of a truly Catholic college education. With your fantastic resources, I was able to confidently find a home for the next four years that would equip me to become the man of God that this world so desperately needs.

The annual contest is open to high school seniors in the United States who participate in the Newman Society’s  Recruit Me program  and use  The Newman Guide in their college search. The innovative Recruit Me program invites Newman Guide colleges to compete for students while providing information about faithful Catholic education. Rising high school seniors who wish to enter next year’s essay contest can sign up for Recruit Me online here .

Kristine’s $5,000 scholarship is made possible by the generosity of Joseph and Ann Guiffre, supporters of The Cardinal Newman Society and faithful Catholic education.

“We are grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Guiffre for enabling this scholarship,” said Newman Society President Patrick Reilly. “They understand the unique value of a truly Catholic education, and they are thrilled to help a student experience all that a Newman Guide-recommended college can provide.”

Each year’s winner of the contest also has the opportunity to receive an additional $15,000 from participating colleges over the course of their college education. Sixteen of the Newman Guide colleges, including Christendom College, have agreed to  supplement the Newman Society’s scholarship  with additional $5,000 grants over three additional years, under certain conditions including full-time enrollment and academic progress.

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Scholarship Essay Competition Gerber & Holder Workers’ Compensation Attorneys

Deadline: may 20, 2024.

Gerber & Holder Workers’ Compensation Attorneys, a top-rated Atlanta workers’ compensation law firm, is proud to support students of all ages and background(s) in their pursuit of higher education.

We offer this privately funded scholarship to help create opportunity for the next generation of Americans and because we know every little bit helps!

2024 scholarship essay question

To enter our scholarship essay competition, answer the following question in 300-500 words:

Georgia law provides employers with an ultimate defense to a workers’ compensation claim in the event they can prove that an injured worker shows willful misconduct in their on the job actions, such as wanton and reckless disregard for safety procedures; however, there is no ability in Georgia for an injured worker to sue his employer in tort if they are injured on the job due to gross negligence. 

Should an employee be allowed to sue an employer in certain instances, should the willful misconduct exclusion be eliminated?  Why or why not?

Eligibility requirements

• You must be a U.S. resident or resident alien  who is currently enrolled in classes with a valid student ID  at a U.S College or University.
• Essays must be unique (not submitted elsewhere) and written by the scholarship application signator.
• Only one submission per student will be considered.
• All entries must be submitted in English.

Scholarship selection process

Our judges will examine all entries received by the deadline above. A winner will be selected up to 6 weeks after the submission deadline. One winner will be awarded the scholarship amount, and notable entries may also be published on the  Gerber & Holder website .

Check will be sent directly to the winner’s college.

Guidelines and tips from the judges

The judges, who read thousands of essays, have provided some key tips that will help you write a high quality essay.

• Answer the question. Submissions that don’t answer the question will be disqualified.
• Be transparent about your use of AI. When submitting your work, make sure to  disclose that you used AI to generate content, and provide the prompts you used to generate that content . This ensures that your work is ethical and honest.
• Use AI to generate ideas and inspiration, not as a replacement for your own writing. AI should not be used to generate entire essays or papers without your own input.
• Carefully consider your prompt and the goals of your writing assignment. Generate prompts that are specific and targeted, which will result in more relevant and useful content.
• Use a variety of prompts to ensure that you are exploring different perspectives and ideas. This will help you generate more well-rounded and nuanced content.
• Remember that AI-generated content is  not a substitute for your own critical thinking  and analysis. Use AI as a tool to help you generate ideas and inspiration, but make sure to carefully  evaluate and edit the content generated by the AI  to ensure that it meets the requirements of your writing assignment.
• Cite any sources and citations used, including the AI prompts.  This ensures that your work is well-researched, accurate, and supported by credible sources.
• Use paragraphs and white space to separate your ideas.
• Come close to the word count requirement. Essays with a count of 50 words below or above the requirement will be disqualified.
• Use a tool like Grammarly to check your work. Free versions are often available.
• Read your essay out loud. If it sounds good to you, it will sound good to the judges.
• Submit your essay as a Word document. Other formats will be disqualified.

Please fill out the form below if you have any questions regarding the contest.

Ownership of entries

All scholarship entries submitted to  Gerber & Holder Workers’ Compensation Attorneys , along with all copyright, trademark and other proprietary rights associated with the submission, become the property of  GerberHolderLaw.com . By submitting the application form, you acknowledge that Gerber & Holder Workers’ Compensation Attorneys will own all rights to publish and promote the content. All entrants also agree that they consent to the use of their name, the school or university they attend, and the use of their likeness (as in a photograph) and prize information.

*The information collected from applicants will not be used to solicit them for business or sold to third-party solicitors.*

Good luck, and we look forward to your submissions!

Past scholarship winners

2019 Scholarship essay contest: A winner is chosen…

Gerber & Holder Law Scholarship Winner: History of civil rights and the labor movement

Gerber & Holder Workers’ Compensation Attorneys scholarship winner: Should PTSD-only claims be allowed under workers’ comp?

Gerber & Holder Workers’ Compensation Attorneys scholarship winner: Improvements to workers’ comp system in the United States

Get to know attorney Ben Gerber

In addition to representing my clients to the best of my abilities, I’m passionate about helping students succeed in their pursuit of higher education, regardless of age or background. By privately funding this scholarship program, I hope to remove some of the stress and financial burdens students face these days. Whether you’re a tired law school student or just starting your undergrad studies, I wish you the best and urge you to keep focusing on your academic success. It’ll pay off in the end!

Benjamin Gerber is a widely respected Atlanta attorney, specializing in  workers’ compensation  litigation for Georgia workers who suffer  back and neck injuries ,  catastrophic injuries ,  car accidents  and other  common workplace accidents . He graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School. During law school, he first began helping individuals stand up to major corporations by working at the Consumer Affairs Clinic. He also had legal internships at the Department of Justice and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  Read bio

I’m injured on the job. How much can I claim on Georgia workers’ comp?

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Atlanta office

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Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize, registrations are now open all essayists must register  here  before friday 31 may, 2024.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by researchers at four British universities, for each 15-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by around 35% for a man but decreases by around 58% for a woman. Why?

In the original version of this question we misstated a statistic. This was caused by reproducing an error that appeared in several media summaries of the study. We are grateful to one of our contestants, Xinyi Zhang, who helped us to see (with humility and courtesy) why we should take more care to check our sources. We corrected the text on 4 April. Happily, the correction does not in any way alter the thrust of the question.

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition. To register, click here .  

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

Q. I missed the registration deadline. May I still register or submit an essay?

A. No. Only candidates who registered before 31 May will be able to submit an essay. 

Q. Are footnote s, endnotes, a bibliography or references counted towards the word limit?

A. No. Only the body of the essay is counted. 

Q. Are in-text citations counted towards the word limit? ​

A. If you are using an in-text based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.

Q. Is it necessary to include foo tnotes or endnotes in an essay? ​

A. You  may not  include footnotes, but you may include in-text citations or endnotes. You should give your sources of any factual claims you make, and you should ackn owledge any other authors on whom you rely.​

Q. I am interested in a question that seems ambiguous. How should I interpret it?

A. You may interpret a question as you deem appropriate, clarifying your interpretation if necessary. Having done so, you must answer the question as directly as possible.

Q. How strict are  the age eligibility criteria?

A. Only students whose nineteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. In the case of the Junior category, only students whose fifteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. 

Q. May I submit more than one essay?

A. Yes, you may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.

Q. If I am eligible to compete in the Junior category, may I also (or instead) compete in another category?

A. Yes, you may.

Q. May I team up with someone else to write an essay?  

A. No. Each submitted essay must be entirely the work of a single individual.

Q. May I use AI, such as ChatGPT or the like, in writing my essay?

A. All essays will be checked for the use of AI. If we find that any content is generated by AI, your essay will be disqualified. We will also ask you, upon submission of your essay, whether you used AI for  any  purpose related to the writing of your essay, and if so, you will be required to provide details. In that case, if, in our judgement, you have not provided full and accurate details of your use of AI, your essay will be disqualified. 

Since any use of AI (that does not result in disqualification) can only negatively affect our assessment of your work relative to that of work that is done without using AI, your safest course of action is simply not to use it at all. If, however, you choose to use it for any purpose, we reserve the right to make relevant judgements on a case-by-case basis and we will not enter into any correspondence. 

Q. May I have someone else edit, or otherwise help me with, my essay?

A. You may of course discuss your essay with others, and it is perfectly acceptable for them to offer general advice and point out errors or weaknesses in your writing or content, leaving you to address them.

However, no part of your essay may be written by anyone else. This means that you must edit your own work and that while a proofreader may point out errors, you as the essayist must be the one to correct them. 

Q. Do I have to attend the awards ceremony to win a prize? ​

A. Nobody is required to attend the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London. But if we invite you to London it is because your essay was good enough - in the opinion of the First Round judges - to be at least a contender for First, Second or Third Prize. Normally the Second Round judges will agree that the short-listed essays are worth at least a commendation.

Q. Is there an entry fee?

A. No. There is no charge to enter our global essay competition unless you submit your essay after the normal deadline, in which case there is a fee of 20.00 USD .

Q. Can I receive a certificate for my participation in your essay competition if I wasn't shortlisted? 

A. No. Certificates are awarded only for shortlisted essays. Short-listed contestants who attend the award ceremony in London will receive a paper certificate. If you cannot travel to London, you will be able to download your eCertificate.

Q. Can I receive feedba ck on my essay? 

A. We would love to be able to give individual feedback on essays but, unfortunately, we receive too many entries to be able to comment on particular essays.

Q. The deadline for publishing the names of short-listed essayists has passed but I did not receive an email to tell me whether I was short-listed.

A. Log into your account and check "Shortlist Status" for (each of) your essay(s).

Q. Why isn't the awards ceremony in Oxford this year?

A. Last year, many shortlisted finalists who applied to join our invitation-only academic conference missed the opportunity because of capacity constraints at Oxford's largest venues. This year, the conference will be held in central London and the gala awards dinner will take place in an iconic London ballroom. 

TECHNICAL FAQ s

Q. The system will not accept my essay. I have checked the filename and it has the correct format. What should I do?  

A. You have almost certainly added a space before or after one of your names in your profile. Edit it accordingly and try to submit again.

Q. The profile page shows my birth date to be wrong by a day, even after I edit it. What should I do?

A. Ignore it. The date that you typed has been correctly input to our database. ​ ​

Q. How can I be sure that my registration for the essay competition was successful? Will I receive a confirmation email?

A. You will not receive a confirmation email. Rather, you can at any time log in to the account that you created and see that your registration details are present and correct.

TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR SUBMISSION

If you are unable to submit your essay to the John Locke Institute’s global essay competition, your problem is almost certainly one of the following.

If so, please proceed as indicated.

1) PROBLEM: I receive the ‘registrations are now closed’ message when I enter my email and verification code. SOLUTION. You did not register for the essay competition and create your account. If you think you did, you probably only provided us with your email to receive updates from us about the competition or otherwise. You may not enter the competition this year.

2) PROBLEM I do not receive a login code after I enter my email to enter my account. SOLUTION. Enter your email address again, checking that you do so correctly. If this fails, restart your browser using an incognito window; clear your cache, and try again. Wait for a few minutes for the code. If this still fails, restart your machine and try one more time. If this still fails, send an email to [email protected] with “No verification code – [your name]” in the subject line.

SUBMITTING AN ESSAY

3) PROBLEM: The filename of my essay is in the correct format but it is rejected. SOLUTION: Use “Edit Profile” to check that you did not add a space before or after either of your names. If you did, delete it. Whether you did or did not, try again to submit your essay. If submission fails again, email [email protected] with “Filename format – [your name]” in the subject line.

4) PROBLEM: When trying to view my submitted essay, a .txt file is downloaded – not the .pdf file that I submitted. SOLUTION: Delete the essay. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “File extension problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

5) PROBLEM: When I try to submit, the submission form just reloads without giving me an error message. SOLUTION. Log out of your account. Open a new browser; clear the cache; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Submission form problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

6) PROBLEM: I receive an “Unexpected Error” when trying to submit. SOLUTION. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If this resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Unexpected error – [your name]” in thesubject line. Your email must tell us e xactly where in the submission process you received this error.

7) PROBLEM: I have a problem with submitting and it is not addressed above on this list. SOLUTION: Restart your machine. Clear your browser’s cache. Try to submit again. If this fails, email [email protected] with “Unlisted problem – [your name]” in the subject line. Your email must tell us exactly the nature of your problem with relevant screen caps.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU EMAIL US.

Do not email us before you have tried the specified solutions to your problem.

Do not email us more than once about a single problem. We will respond to your email within 72 hours. Only if you have not heard from us in that time may you contact us again to ask for an update.

If you email us regarding a problem, you must include relevant screen-shots and information on both your operating system and your browser. You must also declare that you have tried the solutions presented above and had a good connection to the internet when you did so.

If you have tried the relevant solution to your problem outlined above, have emailed us, and are still unable to submit before the 30 June deadline on account of any fault of the John Locke Institute or our systems, please do not worry: we will have a way to accept your essay in that case. However, if there is no fault on our side, we will not accept your essay if it is not submitted on time – whatever your reason: we will not make exceptions for IT issues for which we are not responsible.

We reserve the right to disqualify the entries of essayists who do not follow all provided instructions, including those concerning technical matters.