• All entries must be in by December 1, 2023 at 12:00 PM CDT

• The release date of the winners has been postponed. Please stay tuned for updates.

• Cash Prizes will be given to students and sponsors.

  • 1st Place: $300 to the student, $200 to the teacher.

  • 2nd Place: $200 to the student, $100 to the teacher.

  • 3rd Place: $100 to the student, $50 to the teacher.

• Must have a teacher sponsor, but does not have to be Social Studies teacher. It is recommended to use either a Civics teacher or a Writing teacher, but the essays are not graded based on who is the sponsor.

• To submit essays, Fill out this form and email to youngcitizensdevelopment@gmail.com.

• We have a scoring panel of 6 qualified judges who read each essay. To ensure fairness, each essay will be given a number for the judges. The judges will not know the names of the essays author.

6th Grade:

Since its creation, many amendments have been added to the Constitution to better represent and protect United States citizens. If you could add one amendment to the Constitution, what would it be and why?

7th Grade:

The Constitution guarantees certain rights to all United States Citizens. What's one example of constitutional rights in your life, and in what ways has it affected you?

To submit essays, Fill out this form and email to youngcitizensdevelopment@gmail.com.

Rubric

• Follow this link to see our scoring rubric.

Rules

• All entries must be in by November 1, 2023 at 12:00 PM CDT

• Must be an Escambia County 6th or 7th grade student to participate.

• Plagiarism will not be tolerated in any form. We check for both Chat GPT and other forms of plagiarism. You must include citations (MLA 8) for any research/quotes.

• Essays must use proper MLA 8 citations, with a minimum of 3 citations.

• 6th grade entries must be between 500-550 words. 7th grade entries must be between 550-700 words.

You will be disqualified for any rule violations.