Promotes serious discussion among high school students, teachers, and national leaders about international peace and conflict resolution today and in the future;
Complements existing curricula and other scholastic activities;
Strengthens students' research, writing, and reasoning skills; and
Meets National Contents Standards.
Eligibility
Students 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 attending high school overseas. Students may be attending a public, private, or parochial school or participating in a high school correspondence program. Entries from home-schooled students are also accepted. Students must be in grades nine through twelve at the Contest deadline.
Previous first-place state winners and immediate relatives of directors or staff of the Institute are not eligible to participate. Previous honorable mentions are eligible to enter.
Students may take part in the contest with the sponsorship of a coordinator—parent, teacher, school club, youth group, community group, or religious organization. There must be a contest coordinator—someone in the school or community who can review essays and act as the key contact between participants and the Institute. If there is no designated coordinator at your school or organization, you may ask a parent, teacher, youth group leader, club sponsor, parent, or other adult to be your coordinator. It is to your advantage to have someone review your essay before you submit it to make sure it is complete, has all the necessary forms, is free from spelling and grammatical errors, and addresses the topic. There is no formal process to become a coordinator.
How Do I Write the Essay?
For the purposes of the National Peace Essay Contest, an essay is a three-part paper that lays out and develops a position in response to the essay contest question. Although researching the topic to find examples that support your points is crucial to writing your essay, it should be more than a research paper, a narrative description of an event, or a statement of opinion.
Your essay should contain the following:
An introduction, which introduces the subject and contains an explanation of your position. The objective is to demonstrate that you understand the essay contest question and have formed a response to it.
A body, which develops your argument using research and analysis. The process of analysis may include comparing and contrasting, differentiating among several ideas or events, critiquing a variety of perspectives, interpreting results, or drawing inferences. In this section, you should analyze two case studies. Be sure to identify the sources of your information or ideas.
A conclusion, which summarizes the research and analysis presented in the essay and sets forth your conclusions. Drawing on ideas already presented, you should demonstrate that your conclusions support the position you put forward in the opening paragraphs. Your aim is to convince the reader that your position is reasonable and valid.
