Still heard round the world

CONCORD250 ESSAY CONTEST

Calling all high school writers! Compete in a short essay contest to receive a $500 cash honorarium to invest in your future! The top 5 submissions will get published and will receive a $500 cash honorarium.

If you like to write at all, please check out this fun topic and competition to help us celebrate the 250^th anniversary of the American Revolution and earn a Concord250 Certificate just for participating.

What is it?

Next year – 2025, Concord and the entire nation will commemorate the 250^th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution—“The shot heard ‘round the world”. It is possible that you might be living in Concord another 50 years from now to experience the Tricentennial commemoration in 2075. What do you think life in America will be like? What do you think will have changed 50 years from now? What will be the predominant features of life in the nation, physically or ideologically? What will have happened to Concord? What will have drawn new residents to Concord, or what might have caused residents to leave? Any of these and all other topics can be the issues that you may look into to foresee and describe what will be known and common in the year 2075. Your essay is to describe what will be. What do you think?

Who is eligible and what do I have to do?

Students in grades 9 – 12 who are living in Concord or attending school in Concord are eligible.

You have to write an essay of no more than 1000 words.

You have to submit your essay online here by April 30, 2024.

This sounds like a lot of work, is it?

Make it fun. Interview relatives, neighbors or friends who lived in Concord 50 years ago and get a feeling of how much has changed in the last 50 years. Use your imagination to define your own vision of what you think life will be like 50 years from now. And 1000 words should only take a few hours spread over the next 4 months. But don’t wait to get started!

How does my essay get graded?

Use standard written English grammar and mechanics. Give details and examples as needed and cite sources for specialized information that is not your own. Your essay will be evaluated on its clarity, feasibility, use of plausible examples, supporting events, and original concepts.

Our evaluation committee will read your essay and will select from all entries received 5 entries that are judged to best develop and detail their vision of what will be, in accord with the criteria given above.

All entrants will receive a Concord250 certificate of participation and the top 5 selected entries will receive $500 honorarium and will be published.

In 2075, you will be able to reread your essay and realize how accurate your vision and prediction was!