bota junior essay prize

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Mehnoor Khaliq

Contact information

Email [email protected]

BSc (Hons), MBChB, MRCS(Ed)

Taught MSc student

Orthopaedic themed core surgical trainee with a research interest in lower limb arthroplasty

I am a core surgical trainee in West Yorkshire with a keen interest in academic Trauma and Orthopaedics. My research interests are mainly focussed in the field of lower limb arthroplasty, and I am keen to undertake a strong foundation in musculoskeletal basic science to research how we can utilise personalised medicine to prevent and treat end stage complications of musculoskeletal ageing.    

Throughout my training, I have co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications, led 3 national teaching programmes and a regional mentorship scheme in my role as Chair of the Yorkshire Foundation Trainee Surgical Society, and presented my research at several national and international conferences, including the BOA, BHS, and EFORT. Further to this, I won the runner up award in the BOTA Junior Essay Prize 2020, writing about the difficulties those practising orthopaedics in developing countries face. I am the current co-representative of this MSc, working with the organising committee to ensure the concerns of my colleagues are represented.  

I undertook my Medicine undergraduate degree at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 2019. I intercalated in the BSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2017, where I first developed my passion for research.  

In my free time, I am active in sport. I play netball regionally, with my team achieving promotion this season to the Premier League in the West Yorkshire Division. I also enjoy playing racquet sports, including badminton, tennis, and table tennis.  

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• Discover pathology

Introducing this year’s essay competitions

6 January 2023

Calling all undergraduates and Foundation doctors – our 2023 essay prizes are now open!

The Paola Domizio Undergraduate Essay Prize and the Hugh Platt Foundation Essay Prize are posthumously named after two brilliant pathologists, who contributed a huge amount to the College and to pathology education.

The essay prizes provide an excellent opportunity for undergraduates and Foundation doctors interested in a pathology career to explore and write about a pathology topic in depth and boost their CV ahead of applying for Foundation/specialty training.

Prize winners will be awarded £250 and will have their essay published on our website and in the College magazine, the Bulletin . The winning entry in each category will also be published on the RCPath website and the writers of the winning essays will be presented with a certificate at an RCPath event.

This year's essay questions centre around the current and future impact of pathology within the healthcare team, in celebration of the NHS's 75th anniversary. Undergraduates are invited to answer the following question: ‘When the NHS was introduced, it was said that it would care for people ‘from the cradle to the grave’. 75 years later, how does this apply to pathology?'. Meanwhile, Foundation doctors have the opportunity to explore how pathologists will shape healthcare over the next 75 years.

College members are encouraged to spread the word about both competitions to undergraduates and Foundation doctors within their networks. More information about the competition, downloadable e-flyers and the winning essays from previous years can be found on our essay competitions page .

Thadcha Retneswaran

• Communications Officer

John Locke Global Essay Competition (Standard Prize & Junior Prize)

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 senior academics from the University of Oxford. The judges will choose their favourite essay from each subject category and an overall 'best essay' across seven subjects: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law.

The Institute awards two separate prizes:

• For the standard prize a prize is awarded for the best essay in each category.
• For the Junior Prize there is only one winner.

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

​

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 gap year courses.

Location(s)

• Entries are due no later than June 30

Cost/Compensation

Eligibility requirements.

• Students must be 18 or younger
• Entries are open to candidates from every country

Application or Entry Requirements

• Registration is required, which one can do  here.
• Essays should address only one of the questions in a chosen subject category but students may submit more than one essay so long as they are in different categories.
• Essays must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography, or authorship declaration). 
• Essays should be submitted in pdf format, through the website. 

Notifications of Decisions

• Short-listed contestants announced: July
• Junior Prize announced: August
• Economics Prize announced: September
• Politics Prize and Law Prize announced: September
• Philosophy Prize and Theology Prize announced: September
• Psychology Prize announced: October

Financial Aid Details

Other dates to keep in mind.

• Essay questions released: February

Have other questions?

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. We work to embolden the best and brightest students to become more academically ambitious and more intellectually adventurous. Through our various programs - residential courses, revision seminars, essay competitions, and special events - we inspire students to aim high and we equip them with the skills they need in order to achieve their goals.

• Justin Kanda
• Oct 28, 2023

Junior Eurovision 2023 Albania profile: ‘Bota Ime’ by Viola Gjyzeli

This year, Alabania will be represented at Junior Eurovision 2023 by Viola Gjyzeli, performing her soulful mid-tempo ballad ‘Bota Ime’.

Read on below for more details about the entry, the artist, and the history of Albania at Junior Eurovision!

About the artist: Viola Gjyzeli

Viola was born in Italy to Albanian parents and won her first singing contest at the age of 7 in her hometown of Durrës. She enjoys playing sports like basketball and table tennis, as well as spending time with her six dogs (Zago, Era, Tomi, Zara, Boi, and Bora) and her pet cow Dotty.

Viola Gjyzeli was selected through Albania’s national final “Junior Fest 2023”. The results of Junior Fest 2023 were determined wholly by an expert jury panel.

(Source: junioreurovision.tv)

About the song: ‘Bota Ime’

‘Bota Ime’ (My World) is a mid-tempo ballad featuring a contemporary waltz-like backing track against soul/R&B-inspired vocals.

The track was written by Enis Mullaj (music) and Eriona Rushiti (lyrics), the same team who wrote Albina & Familija Kelmendi’s ‘Duje’ performed in Liverpool for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Eriona Rushiti is also credited as the lyricist for Albania’s 2019 entry in Tel Aviv, ‘Ktheju Tokës’.

Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Albania first participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 with the song 'Kam një këngë vetëm për ju' by Igzidora Gjeta, which finished 12th with 35 points. They then took a few years off, returning in 2015 with the song 'Dambaje' by Mishela Rapo, which to date is Albania's best result, finishing 5th with 93 points.

Apart from the 2020 edition, the country has participated every year since, and finished 12th last year with Kejtlin Gjata’s ‘Pakëz Diell’.

For continued updates on all the Eurovision Song Contest news follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads and TikTok. All links at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet

Recent Posts

Australia will not compete at Junior Eurovision 2024

Junior Eurovision 2023: Insights and stats

Junior Eurovision 2023: Winner and full results revealed

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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.

The BOTA Junior Representative works to represent pre-registrar doctors who are BOTA members. The main forum for this by sitting on the Core Surgical Training Advisory Committee. The Junior rep also helps with the junior streams of BOTA events and organises the Junior essay prize.

[email protected]

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Think Essay Prize

The Royal Institute of Philosophy is pleased to announce the inaugural essay competition for Think .

The winner will be published in an issue of Think , the shortlisted candidates will win a year’s free subscription to  Think , and other prizes will be awarded to all those who make the longlist.

Submissions have now closed for the 2024 Think Essay Prize.

About the prize 

We look forward to receiving your essay submission and hope you are enjoying the programmes and activities that the Royal Institute of Philosophy delivers.

These 11 Essay Contests with Generous Prizes Will Change Your Life

Table of Contents

Essay contests are unusual because to win them you have to use your words. If you are a student who aspires to become a journalist, novelist, or poet, then these essay contests are a stepping stone for you to make that dream a reality.

Essay contests often ask participants to answer a question in the most original and obvious way. However, each contest will have its own rules and regulations to fulfill. You may have to write an essay on a specific topic and meet word count limits. To enter an essay contest, you must have the ability to write something fresh.

There are several essay contests that are valid for students of all levels of education regardless of nationality. As long as you meet the specified requirements, you may register for one or more of the following essay contests.

1. FIRE Free Speech Essay Contest

FIRE is an organization that aims to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience—the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity.

In this contest, you will be asked to write an essay or persuasive letter in 700 to 900 words on the theme of current events, historical examples, your personal experiences, and other resources posted on the FIRE website. Registration for this contest closes on December 31 st , 2020 at 11:59 a.m. EST.

Who should apply?

Open to juniors and seniors in U.S. high schools, including home-schooled students, as well as U.S. citizens attending high school overseas.

What are the prizes of this contest?

One $10,000 first-place prize, one $ 5,000 second-place prize, three $1,000 third-place prizes, and four $500 prizes will be awarded.

2. Ayn Rand Institute Essay Contests

Have you ever read one of Ayn Rand’s thought-provoking novels? Now’s the time! Enter an Ayn Rand Institute essay contest and you’ll have a chance to win thousands of dollars in scholarship prize money.

ARI has held worldwide essay contests for students on Ayn Rand’s fiction for more than thirty years, awarding over $2 million in total prize money! To enter this contest, choose one of the three works of Ayn Rand fiction below and decide what theme you will cover in your essay by answering one of the questions posed on the essay contests web page.

• The Fountainhead
• Atlas Shrugged

You must sign up as a member of the ARI website to find out the deadlines for the contest.

These essay contests are available for students who are interested in Ayn Rand’s work ranging from grade eight students to postgraduate students. Please note that, however, the eligibility for each contest is different.

Total prizes to be awarded to the winners are $30,000.

3. AFSA National High School Essay Contest

The United States Foreign Service—often referred to as America’s first line of defense—works to prevent conflict from breaking out abroad and threats from coming to our shores. Peacebuilders work on the ground to create the conditions for peace and resolve conflicts where they are most needed.

Successful essays will identify, in no more than 1,250 words, a situation where diplomats worked on a peacebuilding initiative with partners from the country/region in question, nongovernmental organizations, and other parts of the U.S. government, and then go on to analyze what characteristics and approaches made the enterprise a success.

The deadline for essay submission is April 5 th , 2021 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Students whose parents are not in the Foreign Service are eligible to participate if they are in grades nine through twelve in any of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories, or if they are U.S. citizens/lawful permanent residents attending high school overseas.

$2,500 will be awarded to the writer of the winning essay, in addition to an all-expense-paid trip to the nation’s capital from anywhere in the U.S. for the winner and his or her parents, and an all-expense-paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea. Runner-up receives $1,250 and full tuition to attend a summer session of the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.

4. JASNA Essay Contests

Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) conducts an annual student essay contest to foster the study and appreciation of Jane Austen’s works in new generations of readers.

The 2021 Essay Contest topic is tied to the theme of our upcoming Annual General Meeting: “Jane Austen in the Arts.” It encompasses a wide variety of arts, including fine arts, performance arts, decorative arts, and crafts.

The deadline for the essay submissions is June 1 st , 2021.

Students and home-schooled students enrolled at the high school level during the contest year, students enrolled in at least six credit hours of course work at a junior college, college, or university during the contest year, and students enrolled during the contest year in at least three credit hours of graduate course work at a college or university leading to an advanced degree are encouraged to apply.

Membership in JASNA is not required to enter the contest.

JASNA awards scholarships to winners in each of the three divisions:

• First Place: $1,000 scholarship and free registration and two nights’ lodging for JASNA’s upcoming Annual General Meeting,
• Second Place: $500 scholarship,
• Third Place: $250 scholarship.

Winners and their mentors each receive a one-year JASNA membership. Besides, each winner receives a set of Norton Critical Editions of Jane Austen’s novels.

5. The Immerse Education Essay Competition

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. The essay questions are pre-defined according to your age group and preferred subject. You are encouraged to tailor your essay response to reflect your interest in your chosen subject.

The application for the competition will be closed on January 5 th , 2021.

The essay contests are available to students of all nationalities who will be aged 13-18 during the summer of 2021.

First-place winners will be awarded a 100% scholarship to study their chosen subject with Immerse. There will be 10 first place winners across the Immerse Education Competitions. Runners up will be awarded partial scholarships of up to 70% to study their chosen subject with Immerse.

6. Fraser Institute Student Essay Contest

Showcase your ideas on public policy and the role of markets by entering this essay competition. Construct an essay exploring the importance of Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction in understanding entrepreneurialism and economic progress in today’s world. You may choose to analyze a particular industry or business (during any time-period) as a case study to bolster your essay.

The essay submission for the contest will be closed on June 1 st , 2021.

This essay contest is open to high school, undergraduate, and postgraduate students.

$9,000 in cash prizes will be awarded $3,000 of this designated just for high school students. Winning essays may be published in Fraser Institute journals and authors will have the opportunity to experience the peer-review process.

7. Optimist International Essay Contests

This essay contest is sponsored by Optimist International to give young people the opportunity to write about their own opinions regarding the world in which they live. The approach can encompass a young person’s personal experience, the experience of their country, or a more historical perspective.

In addition to developing skills for written expression, participants also have the opportunity to win a college scholarship. The topic for the academic year of 2020-2021 is “Reaching your Dreams by Choosing Optimism”. All essay contests are held by early February.

Youth under the age of 19 as of October 1 st , 2020 (and is not enrolled as a degree seeking student of a post-secondary institution) in the United States, Canada, or the Caribbean are eligible for entry. There is no minimum age.

Winners have the opportunity to receive scholarships of up to $2,500.

8. 2021 We the Students Essay Contest

We the Students Essay Contest expects the participants to explore the relationship between equality and justice in an essay with 500 to 800 words. Applicants are encouraged to bring emotion, creativity, specific examples, and well-researched facts into what they write. The deadline for entry is April 15 th , 2021 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Armed Forces schools abroad, and students in United States territories are eligible to participate in the contest. In addition to going to school in a contested state, you must be in grades 8-12 and between the ages of 14-19.

A total of $7,500 will be awarded to the first winner. The second winner and honorable mentions will receive $1,500 and $500, respectively.

9. Student Essay Contest Sponsored by AWM and Math for America

To increase awareness of women’s ongoing contributions to the mathematical sciences, the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and Math for America co-sponsor an essay contest for biographies of contemporary women mathematicians and statisticians in academic, industrial, and government careers.

The essays will be based primarily on an interview with a woman currently working in a mathematical sciences career. Essay submissions are open from December 1 st to February 1 st .

Participation is open to middle school, high school, and undergraduate students.

The winners (including honorable mentions) receive a monetary prize, a membership in the AWM, a certificate, and their name and affiliation published in the Newsletter for the AWM. Also, all of the essays are published online and the essay of the Grand Prize winner is published in the AWM Newsletter.

10. Civics Education Essay Contest

Every year, in honor of Law Day, NCSC hosts a Civics Education Essay Contest. The goal of the contest is to get students engaged and ponder the importance of civics at home and in the classroom. The contest question is based on the American Bar Association’s annual theme. ABA’s 2021 Law Day theme is “Advancing the Rule of Law Now.”  Submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. EST on February 26 th , 2021.

Students from grades three through twelfth are invited to enter these essay contests.

For the 9th-12th grade winners:

• One (1) First Place: $1,000
• One (1) Second Place: $500
• One (1) Third Place: $250

For the 6th-8th grade winners:

• One (1) First Place: $400
• One (1) Second Place: $200
• One (1) Third Place: $100

For the 3rd-5th grade winners:

• One (1) First Place: $300
• One (1) Second Place: $150

11. St. Gallen Symposium Global Essay Competition

Compete in this Global Essay Competition and be one of the top 100 contributors to qualify for all-expenses covered participation as a Leader of Tomorrow in the world’s premier opportunity for cross-generational debates: The St. Gallen Symposium. Submissions are due by  February 1 st , 2021, 11:59 p.m. last time zone (UTC-12).

However, if you are not a fan of essay contests, then this no-essay scholarship might interest you: Bold No Essay Community Scholarship: Easy Scholarship to Enter in 2020 .

To be eligible, you must be enrolled in a graduate or postgraduate program (master level or higher) in any field of study at a regular university and born in 1991 or later.

Win prize money of CHF 20,000 split amongst the three winners.

Concordia Presidential Scholarship in Canada for Undergraduate Students

Scholarship application: the right time to apply for a scholarship.

The Voyager Scholarship Acceptance Rate And Requirements

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IR JUNIORS | The Future of Interventional Radiology

Essay Competitions & Prize Opportunities

The BSIR Essay Competition

The BSIR Essay Scholarship runs every year in the Summer/early Autumn. Open to medical students and foundation doctors. Winners receive free registration to the BSIR ASM!

The SRT Essay Competition

The Society of Radiologists in Training (SRT) runs an annual essay competition for medical students and junior doctors, with winners being offered a book prize & complimentary registration to the SRT Annual Conference. Takes place around Summer.

RCR: Steven Carstairs Essay Prize

The essay prize is for an essay either on a topic relevant to clinical radiology or describing a personal experience of working in a department of clinical radiology during an elective period or vacation. 

BIR Future of Radiology Essay Prize

The BIR Future of Radiology Essay Prize runs each year and is open to medical students and junior doctors. Winners get registration to the BIR Conference. 

BSNR Prof Iain Wilkinson Essay Prize

The BSNR have launched their new essay competition in 2022. This is open to undergraduate* medical students in UK Medical Schools. 

Hexarad Scholarship Essay

In previous years, the teleradiology startup has run an essay competition for students

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Winners of the 2023 Junior Graphic National Essay Competition (JGNEC) last Friday received their prizes at an awards ceremony held at the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) in Accra.

The Overall Winner, Griffith Nana Osafo Brako, of St Dominic Roman Catholic School, Akwatia, Eastern Region, received an all-expense paid trip to the US, a tablet, a cash prize of GH¢3,000 and a certificate.

Michelle Naa Ansaah Addy, a former student of Southbridge Montessori School, Accra, who placed second, received a tablet, a cash prize of GH¢1,500 and a certificate.

The third prize winner, Myron Sean Buertey Adjor, a former student of the Stanward School Limited, also took home a tablet, a cash prize of GH¢1,000 and a certificate.

Other winners

Other winners who received cash prizes of Gh¢500 and a certificate each were Chara Ewurama Nhyira Folson, Unique Child International School, Teshie, Accra; Boadi Ababio, Little Sparks Academy, Accra, and Mary Acquah Obeng, St Dominic R/C Basic School, Akwatia, Eastern Region.

The rest were Ethelda Eyram Kuadamah, Wesley International School, Eastern Region; Ayepah Abena Koomson, St Paul’s Methodist School, Tema, Accra; Alexander Dun-Buunaaim, St John the Evangelist Catholic School, Accra, and Prince Asare Duodu, St Dominic R/C Basic School, Akwatia, Eastern Region.

They would also have the privilege of meeting the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, later in the year.

Collaboration

The acting Managing Director (MD) of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL), Franklin Sowa, said there were many schools, especially in deprived communities that were unable to access any reading materials and, therefore, called for partnership with the business community to purchase copies of the paper for them, saying “we will distribute to the beneficiary schools in your name”.

The award winners displaying their certificates

He expressed appreciation to all sponsors and called on potential sponsors to also come on board.

“We organise roadshows and the budget for it is huge.

 Support us to do this investment in our children,” Mr Sowa, who is also the Marketing Director of the company, added.

He lauded the awardees for their outstanding performance in the contest, while encouraging more school children to participate in this year’s contest.

Commendation

The Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in charge of Management Service, Stephen Kwaku Owusu, commended the Junior Graphic and major stakeholders for organising the contest.

He said the GES was committed to supporting stakeholders to ensure children acquired the right mindset, skills and competencies to thrive in the 21st century and contribute meaningfully to the development of the country.

For his part, the Managing Director of FBN Bank, Mr Victor Yaw Asante, encouraged children to cultivate the habit of reading to broaden their horizon.

2024 contest

The 2024 JGNEC, which is aimed at improving the reading and writing skills of students and pupils across the country, was also launched.

This year’s competition is on the theme: “Impacting society with our imaginative abilities: Role of the child.”

The Editor, Junior Graphic, Hannah Acheampong Amoah, together with Messrs Sowa, Asante and Owusu, launched the 2024 edition of the competition.

Mrs Amoah announced that this year’s competition will be in two stages.

The first stage will be the preliminary level where students from all 16 regions in the country can participate by sending their entries to the paper.

Out of the entries, 50 best essays will be selected, from which the best 10 will be awarded prizes.

Additionally, she said questions and guidelines for the competition would soon be published in the paper.

“For the preliminary stage, students will be given three topics and asked to write on one.

There will be a general knowledge question, a question on the SDG Goals and the last one on climate change,” she indicated.

The event will be sponsored by the FBN Bank, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Office at the Jubilee House and Cowbell.

She congratulated all the winners on their efforts and expressed the hope that they would continue to write articles for publication in the paper and also study hard to achieve their dreams.

“I am happy that the boys are making a mark in the competition unlike the previous years where girls dominated.

“This year, there are five boys among the 10 winners, with a boy emerging as the overall winner.

Well done boys ,keep it up,” the Editor added.

Source: GraphicOnline

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SoFCB Essay Prize

The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) is pleased to announce its annual Essay Prize for 2024, to be awarded to a scholarly article that exemplifies the Society’s mission of advancing the study of texts, images, and artifacts as material objects through capacious, interdisciplinary scholarship. The $500 prize seeks to recognize innovative scholarship that brings together multiple fields of study and that strives to be accessible to the bibliographical community at large. The previous year’s winner and honorable mentions can be found below.

Articles published in any format (journal, edited collection, book chapter, digital platform), in any field, and of any time period are eligible for consideration. The study of texts, images, and artifacts as material objects should be integral to the essay’s argument and the evidence upon which it relies. The prize is open to academic researchers and teachers at all career stages, as well as librarians, curators, and independent scholars. Self-nominations are encouraged. Current and former members of the SoFCB and Rare Book School full-time staff are ineligible for the prize.

Articles with a publication date of 2022 or 2023 are eligible for the 2024 prize. Articles submitted for the 2023 prize competition are not eligible for the 2024 competition.

Deadline for submission: 1 March 2024 . Articles may be sent as a PDF attachment to [email protected] . In your message, please provide preferred contact details for the author(s) of the essay and include an abstract (no more than 250 words) outlining the essay’s original contribution to the study of texts, images, and artifacts as material objects. Limit one submission per author.

The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) was formed in 2017 as a program of Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. Our members seek to integrate methods of critical bibliography into our teaching and research; to foster collegial conversations about historical and emerging media across disciplines and institutions; and to share our knowledge with broader publics. We are committed to creating more accessible, inclusive, and diverse contexts for the study of the material text. See the SoFCB webpage or the SoFCB Junior Fellows Program webpage for more information.

The essay prize has been underwritten by Kimball Higgs, a supporter of Rare Book School and a graduate of Columbia University’s School of Library Service.

Essay Prize Committee

• Devin Fitzgerald , chair (Lecturer, Yale University)
• András Kiséry (Associate Professor of English, City College of New York)
• Alex Hidalgo (Associate Professor of Latin American History, Texas Christian University)

2023 Essay Prize

2023 Winner

• Cassidy Holahan , “Rummaging in the Dark: ECCO as Opaque Digital Archive.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 54, no. 4 (2021): 803–26.

2023 Honorable Mentions

• Matthew D. C. Larsen , “The Real-and-Imagined Biography of a Gospel Manuscript.” Early Christianity 12, no. 1 (2021): 103–31.
• William Stroebel , “Longhand Lines of Flight: Cataloging Displacement in a Karamanli Refugee’s Commonplace Book.” PMLA 136, no. 2 (2021): 190–212.

2022 Essay Prize

2022 Winner

• David R. Como , “Printing the Levellers: Clandestine Print, Radical Propaganda, and the New Model Army,” The Library 22, no. 4 (December 2021): 441–86.

2022 Honorable Mentions

• Alex W. Black , “‘A New Enterprise in Our History’: William Still, Conductor of The Underground Rail Road (1872),” American Literary History 32, no. 4 (Winter 2020): 668–90.
• Nachiket Chanchani , “The Time Machines of Eighteenth-Century Mewar,” Archives of Asian Art 71, no. 2 (October 2001): 219–41.

2021 Essay Prize

2021 Winner

• Elizabeth Neswald , “Things That Don’t Talk Much and Things That Feel: Developing a Material Culture Methodology for ‘Black Box’ Medical Devices,” Nuncius 35 (2020): 632–59.

2021 Honorable Mentions

• Cat Lambert , “The Ancient Entomological Bookworm,” Arethusa 53, no. 1 (Winter 2020): 1–24.
• Christopher N. Warren , Pierce Williams , Shruti Rijhwani , and Max G’Sell , “Damaged Type and Areopagitca’s Clandestine Printers,” Milton Studies 62, no. 1 (March 2020): 1–47.

2020 Essay Prize

2020 Winner

• Michaël Roy, “The Slave Narrative Unbound,” in Brigitte Fielder and Jonathan Senchyne (eds), Against a Sharp White Background: Infrastructures of African American Print , Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 2019, p. 259–76.

2020 Honorable Mentions

• Melissa Reynolds , “‘Here Is a Good Boke to Lerne’: Practical Books, the Coming of the Press, and the Search for Knowledge, ca. 1400–1560,” Journal of British Studies 58.2 (April 2019): 259–88.
• Nora C. Benedict , “Books about Books and Books as Material Artifacts: Metabibliography in Jorge Luis Borges’s El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (1941),” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 42, no. 3 (2018): 451–72.