High School Essay Contest

Cash awards for winners of essay contest. Topics include "Is Jon Stewart a Real Journalist?"

First Prize: $300

Two Second Prizes: $100

There’s something different about this year’s high school essay contest.  For the first time, students have a choice of topics.

Ordinarily, SPJ’s national headquarters set the topic.  It’s often some variation of, “Why Free News Media Are Important.”  But experience has shown that San Diego students take more interest in the contest when the topic is aimed more directly at them.

This year, students can choose from three prompts:  “Is Jon Stewart a Real Journalist?”, “Should Teenagers Care About the News?” and “What the Media Get Wrong About My Generation.”

The County Office of Education is helping to promote the contest, which is open to any high school student in the county.  Entry forms are available at www.sdspj.org. Entries must be postmarked by April 1st.

The winning essays will be selected by a committee of local journalists.  The author of the best essay will be awarded $300, and two runners up will each receive $100. Winning essayists are also invited to the SPJ awards banquet in June. 

Entries should not exceed 1,000 words and must be postmarked by April 1, 2007

Attach this form with your entry