Deadline: February 1, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. EST
Level: Boys and girls in grades 3-12

“Engineering for your Community” is the theme of the National Academy of Engineering’s 2018 EngineerGirl! Essay Contest. Students in grades 3 to 12 can win up to $500 for writing pleas to convince local or national officials to improve public infrastructure, such as roads, trash collection, or the 9-1-1 emergency response system.

Prizes range from $100 to $500.

The contest is open to individual girls and boys in the following three competition categories :

1. Elementary School Students (grades 3-5); Essays must be 400 to 700 words.
2. Middle School Students in (grades 6-8); Essays must be 600 to 1,100 words.
3. High School Students (grades 9-12); Essays must be 1,000 to 1,500 words.

How to Enter

Write an essay which addresses the requirements in the contest description. Essays should be written clearly. They may be shorter than, but should not exceed, the word limit. Submit the essay through the Online Submission Form on the EngineerGirl! website, and include all required information.

Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. (EST) on February 1, 2018. Click HERE for the contest rules.

What are the Awards?

All winning entries will be published on the EngineerGirl! website. (Please review the publication agreement before you submit your essay.) In addition, all winners will receive the prizes listed below:

• First-place winners will be awarded $500.
• Second-place entries will be awarded $250.
• Third-place entries will be awarded $100.

Honorable Mention entries will not receive a cash reward but will be published on the EngineerGirl! website.

Additional Rules

• Essays will be judged on the basis of design content, research, expression, and originality. You may wish to preview the 2013 Contest Scorecord.
• All essays must be the original work of the author submitting the entry and must not have been published anywhere else.
• A contestant may enter only one essay.
• All entries will be read by a panel of judges, whose selections will be final.

See last year’s winning essays on saving penguins, sea turtles, and Asian elephants HERE.

Need inspiration? Read this 2014 Washington Post story about a group of D.C. middle school students who successfully lobbied their legislators to build a bus shelter at their school.

Filed under: K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features

Tags: Competitions for Students, Contest, EngineerGirl, Essay Competition, Essay Contest, literacy, National Academy of Engineering, writing