Program Length: 1 week in July

Location: Washington, DC

Admissions Req: Current or rising 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students in the US

Highlight:  Have you ever gone to Washington? Have you ever visited the wide variety of museums and memorials there? If you haven’t, why not sign up for the Congressional Essay Competition! In this essay competition, high schoolers in the US are given the chance to win an opportunity to travel to Washington with full access to meals and housing. In this essay competition, students write an up-to- 750  word essay that will be assessed by the criteria set by the judging committee. Applications can be downloaded and printed or digitally filled out. Each year there is a new topic  for students to write about. For 2022 the question is “Choose one of the five freedoms in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and discuss why it should or should not be changed in today’s high-tech global society.” Winners of this essay contest win a comprehensively covered trip to Washington D.C.! There will be week-long workshops and a fantastic itinerary of activities in which to partake, from visits to memorials and museums to dance cruises aboard the Spirit of Washington! The application deadline is early December for the program lasting one week in the following summer. Because the program happens through July annually, we assume the application for this essay contest will open in the month of August. The application process of this essay competition may be slightly more complicated than other contests similar to this, possibly due to the formalities required to reward travel versus scholarship money? So are you interested? If so, make sure to email dames@nscda.org  with your application, to take advantage of this unique opportunity to write your ticket to travel to the nation’s capital!

Financial: Free to apply!