Official Rules
Please note: The Official Rules were revised on September 9, 2011, after the start of the competition, to raise the total number of scholarships awarded from nine to ten. Instead of awarding eight $10,000 scholarships and one $20,000 scholarship, the competition will now award nine $10,000 scholarships and one $20,000 scholarship. Please see Section 2, Awards, for more details. No other aspect of the competition or its rules was changed.
A .PDF version of the Official Rules is available for download.
1. The Essay
- The topic for the 2011 Junior Achievement Essay Competition is "How can young entrepreneurs and the local governments of DC, Maryland, and Virginia work together to empower the next generation to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Greater Washington?"
- Essays will be judged on the following criteria:
- Creativity & originality
- Persuasiveness
- Grammar & spelling
- Understanding of the Greater Washington Region
- Understanding of business
- Applicants must strictly adhere to a 1,000 – 1,500 word limit and will not qualify if the essay is outside of this range. Footnotes, citations, endnotes, and essay titles will not be counted as part of the 1,000 – 1,500 words allotted to the applicant.
- Applicants must use proper grammar and spelling in the essay and will be penalized for use of improper grammar or spelling.
- Applicants are not permitted to include any forms of media other than plain text in their essays, such as photos, diagrams, or charts.
- Essays must be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font, double spaced.
- Essays must include the Applicant ID Code assigned by Junior Achievement in the upper right corner of each page. Applicant ID Codes will be automatically assigned after the completion of the first step of the online submission process.
- Applicants may opt to cite external references in their essays, such as statistics or quotes. All external references must be properly cited as parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes.
- Essays must be the original work of the applicant. Essays must neither have been entered in another competition nor have been published previously in any form or sold for publication. Essays must not contain material that infringes on the intellectual property rights of others. Any essay that violates these rules will be immediately disqualified. All essays will be checked for plagiarism by Junior Achievement with SafeAssign by Blackboard.
- Junior Achievement will collect personally identifiable information about applicants as part of the application process. No personally identifiable information about the applicants will be revealed to any member of the judging committee at any time during the judging process. Applicants should not include their name or personally identifiable information either within the essay or on any pages the essay is printed upon – personal information should only be included on the completed application form. Any essay that violates these rules will be immediately disqualified.
2. Awards
- The winning essays will be determined by a judging committee selected by Junior Achievement of Greater Washington ("Junior Achievement").
- A first, second, and third place winner will be selected from each of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Additionally, one grand prize winner will be selected from among all three regions, for a total of ten winning applicants.
- The grand prize winner will receive a $20,000 scholarship. The first, second, and third place winners from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia will each receive a $10,000 scholarship.
- All winners will be invited to attend a private awards ceremony in spring 2012, and will have their essays published on Junior Achievement's website.
- Winners will be announced on www.myJA.org in spring 2012.
- In each of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, the school with the greatest number of eligible applications will receive $6,000, for a total of three winning schools.
3. Who May Enter
- Applicants must be enrolled students in the 9th – 12th grade at an accredited high school in the 2011 – 2012 academic year in one of the following counties or cities:
- Maryland: Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's, Saint Mary's
- Virginia: Alexandria City, Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax City, Fairfax County, Falls Church City, Fauquier, Fredericksburg, King George, Loudoun, Manassas City, Manassas Park City, Prince William, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Warren
- Washington, DC
- Applicants must be citizens or legal residents of the United States.
- Immediate family members of judging committee members and of Mr. David Rubenstein are ineligible for this essay competition. Immediate family members of employees of Junior Achievement, the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement, and the Associate Leadership Council of Junior Achievement are also ineligible.
- Winners of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Junior Achievement Essay Competitions are ineligible for this essay competition.
- Any applicant who has been previously disqualified from a Junior Achievement competition is ineligible for this essay competition.
4. How to Enter
- Applicants must submit essays to Junior Achievement between August 24, 2011 – October 31, 2011, via the competition's website, www.myJA.org/students/essay/. Essays received by Junior Achievement after 11:59 p.m. on October 31, 2011, will not qualify. Essays submitted by mail, courier, fax, or a means other than the competition's website will not qualify. Essays must be submitted as a .doc (Microsoft Word 2003), .docx (Microsoft Word 2007), .odt (OpenOffice.org), or .txt (plain text) file. Essays submitted in an alternate file format and essays that contain corrupted data which cannot be opened will be disqualified. The file must be under 1.0 MB in size.
- Applicants must submit an application form via the competition's website, www.myJA.org/students/essay/.
- Applicants must have an educator, guidance counselor, or other official at their accredited school submit verification of school enrollment via the competition's website, www.myJA.org/students/essay/. Verification of school enrollment received by Junior Achievement after 11:59 p.m. on October 31, 2011, will not qualify.
- Essays submitted with an incomplete application form or without verification of enrollment in an accredited school will not qualify.
5. Conditions for Participation
- All submitted essays become the exclusive intellectual property of Junior Achievement upon submission.
- Junior Achievement may use prizewinners' names, likeness, and other identifying information (such as hometown, school, or grade) in promotional materials relating to this essay competition.
- Winners (or their parents or guardians) will be required to sign an affidavit of eligibility, originality, and compliance with the official rules, a liability release, and a publicity release as a condition to receiving their scholarship.
- Winners will be required to provide written evidence of their intent to matriculate to an institution of higher education as a condition to receiving their scholarship.
- Winners will be required to affirm that the scholarship will be used solely for paying expenses incurred as part of attending an institution of higher education as a condition to receiving their scholarship.
- All taxes shall be the responsibility of the winners of the essay competition. Winners will be required to submit a completed IRS Form W-9 to Junior Achievement as a condition to receiving their scholarship.
- The scholarship will be disbursed to each winner in June of the calendar year that the winner plans to matriculate to an institution of higher education.
6. Miscellaneous
- No essay will be given preference over any other essay on the basis of an applicant's name, school, grade, gender, race, ethnicity, geographic origin, or any legally protected status.
- No essay will be given preference over any other essay on the basis of an applicant's ability or inability to attend the private awards ceremony in spring 2012.
- Applicant acknowledges that Junior Achievement shall have no liability of any kind as a result of any errors or omissions in the administration of this essay competition and by entering this competition applicant releases any claims applicant may have against Junior Achievement in this regard.
If you have any questions, please contact David Bing, Director, Development Operations, at (202) 777-4475 or David.Bing@JA.org.
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