Gandhi Essay Contest

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE 2012-2013 ESSAY PROMPT and FULL CONTEST DETAILS

To See the Full Scoring Rubric Used for Judging Essays – Click Here

Congratulations, Alex Supron!

1st Place Gandhi Essay Contest Winner 2013

Alex Supron, 8th Grade Student at St. Michael’s Country Day, of Newport, RI, reading his winning essay at the annual award ceremony at URI.

In 2012-13 we received a total of 88 entries from 8th graders from 17 schools across Rhode Island, from which our 21 finalists were selected.
These students, their families, teachers, and principals were invited to join us for our 2013 Gandhi Essay Award Ceremony on May 1st, from 5pm – 7pm at the Multicultural Center Forum at URI. At this ceremony we recognized several second and third place essay winners, and announced the overall first place essay winner, ALEX SUPRON, who read his winning essay.

Our 2012 Gandhi Essay Contest Finalists and the Schools:

Lydia Beal St. Michael’s Country Day, Newport

Andrew Binder The Gordon School, Providence

Victoria Boatright St. Michael’s Country Day, Newport

Allie Brennan Winman Jr. High School, Warwick

Casey Gannon Winman Jr. High School, Warwick

Deirdre Irvine St. Michael’s Country Day, Newport

Sydney Jenkins Moses Brown School, Providence

Gwendolyn Kalian Winman Jr. High School, Warwick

Michael Kodua Slater Junior High School, Pawtucket

Andre LoPresti St. Michael’s Country Day, Newport

Aubrianna Majewski St. Michael’s Country Day, Newport

Jessica McDonald Saint Philomena, Portsmouth

Haley Pallock Winman Jr. High School, Warwick

MaryAnn Rompf St. Michael’s Country Day, Newport

Julia Sharma-Mathias Winman Jr. High School, Warwick

Ava Sheldon Winman Jr. High School, Warwick

Meghan Smith Saint Philomena, Portsmouth

Eliana Stein Winman Jr. High School, Warwick

*Alex Supron St. Michael’s Country Day, Newport*

Vanessa Varone Sacred Heart School, East Providence

Ariana Wynn Park View Middle School, Cranston

All Finalists received certificates and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Winners received cash prizes! We’re so excited by this important opportunity for our Center to focus on educating Rhode Island youth about Gandhi and his Nonviolent philosophy of life. We’d like to congratulate ALL off our participants for enlightening us with their thoughtful essays! Please join us in congratulating these amazing students!

Click Here to view more photos of the 2013 Awards and Student Finalists

Who is Eligible to Participate?

All students in Grade 8 who attend public, private, parochial, or home school programs in Rhode Island.

Awards

Every student submitting an essay will receive an official certificate of participation from URI. A smaller number of students who have written the best essays will be selected to receive awards and cash prizes, and be recognized at our award ceremony on the URI campus in early May.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE 2012-2013 ESSAY PROMPT and FULL CONTEST DETAILS

Essay General Guidelines

Format: Personal Essay.

Essay must be double-spaced, typed, and a maximum of 3 pages (750 words)

12-point font size, 1 inch margins.

MLA format will be used for any in-text citations and for the works cited page. Works cited page is not included in page and word count.

COVER PAGE with student name, grade, school name, mailing address, telephone, email contact. Attach to original essay

Do not include your name on the essay pages (your name should be only on cover page).

Please provide 1 additional copy of your original essay (a total of 2 essays)

All essays should be stapled to prevent lost pages.

Be sure to keep an additional copy for yourself because essays will not returned.

Judging Criteria

Essays will be initially reviewed and screened by the judging committees organized and directed by URI faculty of by tfrom the university’s School of Education and Writing Program. Essays are judged based on how well they address the prompt, and whether they are well-written, thoughtful, and memorable. Ideas should be developed and clearly organized, using effective and grammatically correct language. All essays should follow the directions and comply with the contest guidelines. The best essays are then read and judged by members of the contest committee, responsible for deciding final place winners.

To See the Full Rubric for Scoring Contest Essays Click Here