Many Languages, One World. 2017 Student Essay Contest and Global Youth Forum

Essay Guidelines:

Write an original essay discussing global citizenship and cultural understanding, and the role that multilingual ability can play in fostering these. The essay should reflect your personal, academic, cultural and national context.

• Essays should be no longer than 2,000 words.  Essays exceeding the 2,000 word limit may not be read.
• Entrants must properly credit sources used in the preparation of their essays.  Please use either American Psychological Association (APA) or Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style.
• The essay must be submitted/uploaded in MS WORD format, and cannot be larger than 5MB.
• Do not include a cover page with personal information, as the essays will be evaluated anonymously.

Please Note: If the contest directors learn that you have violated any of the Official Contest Rules, neglected to cite sources, or have used any translation service or software to write your essay, you will be immediately disqualified.

Essays must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday 16 March, 2017 in order to qualify. Do not wait until the deadline date to submit. Give yourself time to ensure that your essay will be received successfully.

Entry Process:

1. Write your essay according to the Official Contest Rules and Essay Guidelines.
2. A faculty member or authorized representative from your college or university must recommend you for participation in the contest by completing and submitting the faculty referral form on the contest website.

The faculty member or university representative referring you must read the final copy of your essay in order to be able to attest to the following statements on the referral form:

I hereby attest that the entrant is a full-time student in good standing at this institution. I affirm that the entrant’s essay is her/his original, unaided work and is written in an official language of the United Nations that is neither the entrant’s first language nor was it the language of instruction during his or her primary or secondary education. I understand that the essay must be written in one of the official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish.

I have read the official contest rules and how to enter information at the Many Languages, One World website.

After the faculty referral form is submitted, the faculty member will receive an email from Many Languages, One World requesting confirmation of the referral.

Make sure that your faculty member looks for this email and clicks on the confirmation link. They may need to check their spam or junk mail folder. If your faculty member does not confirm their referral, you will not be able to submit an entry.

Once the referral form has been received by Many Languages, One World and confirmed by the faculty member, you will receive an email with further information, and a link where you can complete your student entry form and upload your essay to the contest website.

1.  The student entry form must be completed in its entirety, and in English. If your entry form is incomplete, you will be disqualified. Be sure to include your government-issued identity card number or passport number, and enter your full name as it appears on your official documents or passport. Do not submit your photo.
2. At the bottom of the student entry form you will find the link to upload your essay to the contest website.

Only essays submitted through this link will be accepted. You can only submit one essay to the contest.

Selection Process:

Step 1: Essays will be validated to ensure that all rules were followed.

Step 2:  Two panels of judges will read and evaluate the essays based on the quality of ideas expressed and their fluency of language. These two scores will be combined, and the top essayists will advance to the interview stage of the competition.

Step 3: The top essayists in each language will be invited to interview with a member of our international panel of judges. This interview will be conducted in the language of the essay, online, via SKYPE video call. You will be expected to show your government-issued identification or your passport at the beginning of the interview, to verify your identity.

Winners will be selected based on their cumulative scores. Selection criteria include the originality and quality of thought and the written and spoken language proficiency in the essay and interview.

Please do not send inquiries regarding your individual status as an entrant. We will not send notification until after the winners have been chosen and their attendance at the Global Youth Forum has been confirmed.

Notification:

In May, ELS Educational Services, Inc. will send winners a letter of invitation to the 2017 Global Youth Forum and ELS Preparatory Conference. At that time, winners will also receive complete rules of participation for the ELS Preparatory Conference. Winners are required to sign a statement promising to abide by all of these rules, and acknowledging that they will be sent home immediately, at their expense, if they disobey any of the rules, at the discretion of the conference staff and organizers.*

*No e-ticket will be issued until the winner’s signed statement has been received by Many Languages, One World.

Winners will also receive detailed instructions about visa application, e-ticketing for the round trip (non-refundable) air ticket, arrival procedures and the tentative agenda of the Conference, which will take place between 15-26 July 2017.

Functional knowledge of English is required for participation in the preparatory conference.

https://www.manylanguagesoneworld.org/en/HowToEnter