Award will go to Stop The Hate: Youth Speak Out! Essay Contest Winner
Cleveland, Ohio (November 11, 2008) — Imagine receiving a scholarship for four years of college tuition based on your empathy, ability to express yourself, concern for others and deep feelings about the danger of hate. For one area junior or senior, the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage will make that possible.
The Maltz Museum announces a tuition scholarship to an Ohio college/university valued at up to $100,000 (up to $25,000 per year for up to four years) added to the Stop The Hate: Youth Speak Out! essay contest. 11th and 12th grade finalists with the best essays will be selected and invited to submit additional information to qualify for the scholarship, and one grand prize winner will be chosen.
The contest, announced earlier this year, was conceived by The Maltz Museum to help students develop critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills, and to focus attention on the corrosive effects of hatred, discrimination and intolerance. An important part of the Museum’s mission is to build bridges of appreciation, tolerance and understanding with people of other religions, races, cultures and ethnic backgrounds, which can be done through exploration of how we are all more alike than different, and how discrimination and hatred can divide people.
Stop The Hate: Youth Speak Out! asks students to describe an act of discrimination, reflect upon their response and put forth a plan of action to affect change. Entries will be judged on content, originality, potential for implementation and presentation. The contest is also open to Middle and High School students (including home-school students) in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit counties. Details are available at www.maltzjewishmuseum.org.
Only juniors and seniors are eligible for the grand prize scholarship. Other prize winners will receive United States Savings bonds. Awards will be given at a ceremony in March, 2009. The deadline to submit the 500 word essay has been extended to Friday, December 5, and students are encouraged to visit the Museum for free through that date to gain inspiration while preparing their essays.
Chairman of the Board and Museum Co-Founder Milton Maltz believes in the power of motivation, the importance of ideas, and the ability of a contest to inspire students to generate thoughtful solutions to basic human problems. He notes, “There’s nothing more central to our work here than helping teach children not to hate. Students visit every day, and many are horrified to see our stories of man’s inhumanity to man. Through these essays, hundreds of students from across our region will think more about why hate happens, and from those thoughts will come some inspiring solutions”.
###
