Essay Contest
Photo by: Peter J. Mello
Change Our Name is sponsoring our
Second Annual Essay Contest
for Fort Bragg High School students
First prize: $2000 & Conference Scholarship to the
Mendocino Writers Conference August 1 - 3, 2024
Second prize: $1000
Details
In a project designed to get Fort Bragg High School students thinking and writing about their school name, the grassroots community group Change Our Name announces their second annual essay contest asking students to write on the subject “The Name of Fort Bragg High School Should be Changed” or “The Name of Fort Bragg High School Should Not be Changed.”
Explained Change Our Name: “Of course the 900 or so folks who are part of our group are clearly in favor of a name change given Braxton Bragg’s role as a General in the Confederate Army and as a slaveholder and the Fort’s historical role in dispossessing the original Indigenous inhabitants of our land. But we realize that many people and many students don’t know this history. So the contest will impel them to research and make up their own minds about the issue. The essays will be judged not on whether the students agree with us but on the breadth of their research and the force of their arguments for or against the name change.”
A new prize has been added to the Change Our Name Essay Contest: The Mendocino Writers Conference has just added a complete Conference Scholarship to the first place prize of the Change Our Name Essay Contest. The Mendocino Writers Conference, scheduled for August 1-3, 2024, offers attendees from across the country workshops, craft seminars, and the chance to meet successful published authors. This full scholarship covers the equivalent of $875 in registration fees.
Requirements:
1000-1500 words
Limited to grades 9-12 in Fort Bragg High School
Prompt:
Resolved- “The Name of Fort Bragg High School Should be Changed” or “The Name of Fort Bragg High School Should Not be Changed.”
Submissions & Deadlines:
Submissions open: March 1, 2024 and close April 19, 2024. Winners will be announced in June 2024.
Must be received via email only to changeournamefortbragg@gmail.com by 5:00 PM on April 19. Essays should be attached in Word or Google Docs.
Prizes:
Cash prizes have been doubled since last year. Additionally, a full conference scholarship has been added to the first prize winner.
First Place: $2,000, Conference Scholarship to the Mendocino Writer’s Conference August 1-3, 2024, a value of $875 in registration fees.
Second Place: $1,000
Criteria for judging:
Grammar & language mechanics
Writing fluency & style
Evidence of research, including footnotes or text references
A logical research-based well-defended argument for their position
Essays should be formatted using 12 point New Times Roman font with 1” margins on all sides.
To establish eligibility students will submit an additional signed statement affirming “I am a Fort Bragg High School student” and have it signed by a teacher at Fort Bragg High School.
Winning essayists agree to allow Change Our Name to reproduce their winning essays and will make themselves available to read them at a public event organized by Change Our Name.
Judges:
4 community leaders, writers and educators, without affiliation with Change Our Name.
Change Our Name is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit incorporated in the state of California with the goal of educating residents to the need to change the name of Fort Bragg as one step towards racial justice and a reckoning with America history.
This essay contest is solely a project of Change Our Name Fort Bragg, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit incorporated in the state of California and is neither sponsored by nor affiliated with the Fort Bragg Unified School District nor with Fort Bragg High School.
If you have further questions send us an email at changeournamefortbragg@gmail.com .