Prompt: Imagine there is a perfect city where none of today’s problems exist, what does the city look like? What problems have been solved?

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Students in grades 3 through 8 are invited to submit a written response to the prompt in our 2nd Annual Youth Essay Contest. Students in grades 9 through 12 are invited to submit a response through our new artistic freestyle category. Submission details for both contests are detailed below. 

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Essay Contest: 

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Students will submit in one of three judging classes: 3rd-4th grade, 5th-6th grade, and 7th-8th grade. Class is determined based on the student's enrollment as of the 2024-2025 academic year.

 

Each class will have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize. Essays will be judged on content & relevance to the prompt, creativity & imagination, engagement & impact, organization & structure, clarity & coherence, and grammar & writing mechanics. 

 

Grades 3 and 4 are invited to submit a one paragraph answer to the prompt.

 

Students in grades 5 through 8 are asked to write a short essay response (500-700 words) to the provided prompt.

 

All submissions should be limited to 700 words. Submission must be in English. Submissions that do not meet these eligibility requirements will not be evaluated. 

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Artistic Freestyle: ​

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Students in grades 9 through 12 are invited to submit a 1-2 minute creative video/audio response or a 8.5"x11" visual response to the prompt. These creative responses may take on any form of expression—dance, song, photography, drawing, etc. Students are encouraged to embrace unique forms of expression. 
 

Note: Physical art submissions cannot be accepted; instead, we encourage students to submit a picture of creative video displaying physical art pieces. Performance art must be submitted via video. All video/audio responses containing copyrighted material (i.e. music) must attribute credit to the rightful owner. 

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Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of KIDA members before being presented to the Stanford student body for popular choice evaluation. The favorite three submissions of the student body will be honored alongside our Youth Essay Contest winners. 

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Student eligibility is limited to those enrolled in the 9th-12th grades, determined by their enrollment status as of the 2024-2025 academic year. Submission must be in English. Video/audio submissions must be no shorter than 1 minute and no longer than 2 minutes. Visual responses must be formatted to fit an 8.5"x11" page (we recommend converting images to PDF files to ensure proper formatting). Submissions that do not meet these eligibility requirements will not be evaluated. 
 

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All Submissions are due by February 28, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.