Enter the Winter YES! National Student Writing Competition

Image screenshot YES! Magazine.

This winter our friends at YES! are sponsoring a writing competition for students in middle school through university.

Students are to read the YES! article, "What Can Change When We Learn to See Each Other" by Akaya Windwood and respond to it. According to the website: "Akaya’s story is about how her heart broke when she was thanked by a young African American man for saying hello. She wondered what it felt like to live in a world where people don't acknowledge your existence. Intentional or not, there are probably people in your own community who your students may overlook–the grocery clerk, the school lunch lady, the homeless man."

Prompt: Your students should write an essay of up to 700 words answering the question, “Imagine you accept Akaya Windwood's invitation to intentionally notice people you would normally ignore or not see. Who would you notice? How would you acknowledge that person? And, what could possibly change for you? For them?”

The registration deadline is January 30, 2013, and essays must be submitted by February 22, 2013.

This competition offers students a great opportunity to reflect on our relationships with others, the kinds of assumptions we make about them, and to what degree we're being mindful in our daily lives.


Find out more and check the website for entry requirements.


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