National High School Essay Contest in USA: $2,500 to the writer of the winning essay, in addition to an all-expense paid trip to the nation’s capital from anywhere in the U.S. for the winner and his or her parents, and an all-expense paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea. Runner-up receives $1,250 and a full tuition to attend a summer session of National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.
The American Foreign Service Association, founded in 1924, is both a professional organization and the United States Foreign Service's exclusive representative. Active-duty and retired Foreign Service officers and specialists from the Department of State, as well as members of the Foreign Service from the United States Agency for International Development, Foreign Agricultural Service, Foreign Commercial Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and United States Agency for Global Media, make up AFSA's close to 16,800 members.
AFSA is both the primary advocate for the professional career Foreign Service's long-term institutional well-being and the guardian of its members' interests. AFSA also aims to raise awareness of the importance of the US Foreign Service in maintaining American global leadership among the American people.
Students whose parents are not in the Foreign Service are eligible to participate if they are in grades nine through twelve in any of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories, or if they are U.S. citizens attending high school overseas. Students may be attending a public, private, or parochial school. Entries from home-schooled students are also accepted.
The AFSA Scholarship Fund offers one-time only, competitive merit awards to high school seniors graduating in 2020 that are children of U.S. Foreign Service employees who have at least one parent as an AFSA member. For complete details go to www.afsa.org/scholar.
Academic Merit Award - requires students to submit:
Art Merit Award - requires students to submit:
Community Service Award - requires students to submit information describing up to three substantive community service activities. One $3,500 award and several $1,000 honorable mention awards are bestowed.
USA citizen or permanent resident
Previous first-place winners and immediate relatives of AFSA and Semester at Sea directors or staff are not allowed to compete.
Essay Contest Rules
Length: Your essay should be at least 1,000 words but should not exceed 1,250 words (word count does not apply to the list of sources). The word count must be included on the document you submit.
Content and Judging: The quality of the analysis, the quality of the research, and the form, style, and mechanics of the submissions will all be considered. Successful entries will respond to all facets of the prompt and show knowledge of the Foreign Service.
Each region's top five essays will progress to the final round of judging, where the winner, runner-up, and honorable mentions will be determined. All of the judges' rulings are final. All qualifying essays will be judged blindly in a series of rounds. All of the judges' rulings are final.
Sources: For (1) source documentation in the text of your memo; (2) the format of the list of works referenced; and (3) margins and indentation, standards from the current version of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers will be required.
A bibliography formatted according to the MLA Handbook is required. Academic journals, news magazines, newspapers, books, government records, and publications from research groups should all be included in essays.
Primary sources should account for at least three of the cited resources (a document, speech, or other sort of evidence written, created or otherwise produced during the time under study). Wikipedia and other general encyclopedias are not suitable sources.
Essays citing general encyclopedias in notes or bibliography will be disqualified. Websites should not be the only source of information for your essay; when you do use online sources they must be properly cited.
What traits characterize diplomats and peacebuilders who successfully negotiate or prevent violent conflict? The US Foreign Service—often referred to as America's first line of defense—works to keep war and threats from breaking out abroad and reaching our borders.
Peacebuilders operate on the ground to establish peace and resolve disputes in areas where they are most needed.
In no more than 1,250 words, successful essays will describe a situation in which diplomats collaborated on a peacebuilding initiative with partners from the country/region in question, nongovernmental organizations, and other parts of the US government, and then analyze what characteristics and approaches made the venture a success.