We need your help to recognize students who stand up to indifference and discrimination. Each year, we reward student upstanders with $100,000 in scholarships, awards and anti-bias grants. This year we anticipate receiving more essay submissions in our annual Youth Speak Out contest than ever before, which means we need more help than ever to review and score essays written by 6-12th graders from across Northeast Ohio. Readers can expect to score around 15 typed essays (around 500 words each) per reading period: January 7-18 (Session 1) and January 21-31 (Session 2). The Maltz Museum provides an easy-to-follow rubric to help volunteers standardize their scoring. Overall, the reading process is easy, flexible and rewarding.
Below are a few reasons we hope you’ll volunteer as a #stopthehate essay reader this year:
- “I can make a difference.” – Eli Goldman, 2016 Beachwood High School Finalist
Tikkun Olam is a Jewish concept that translates from Hebrew as “repair the world” and is connected with our responsibility for righting social wrongs. Volunteer readers encourage students to see their role in effecting positive change in the world. - “Volunteers don’t necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.”- Elizabeth Andrew
Time restraints and scheduling issues can make volunteering difficult. However, Stop the Hate® scoring is flexible enough to fit into your schedule and is easily accessible for anyone with a computer or tablet. The whole process takes around an hour or so! - “Wherever you turn, you can find someone who needs you. Even if it is a little thing, do something for which there is no pay but the privilege of doing it.”- Albert Schweitzer
Since this opportunity is completely online, location is no issue. You can read from the comfort of your own couch anywhere in the world! Last year, we had readers from more than 20 states and five countries. - “The personal stories that the students share encourage me to participate each year. I am inspired by these students speaking out against hate and spreading love and compassion in their communities.”
This quote, from one of our veteran volunteer readers encapsulates how reading for this contest touches the lives of those generously donate their time to the program.
You can register to be a reader by filling out the online form found here. Please carefully read the qualifications and share with you friends, family and colleagues!
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at 216.593.0587 or wbane@mmjh.org.
–W. Aaron Bane, Manager, Volunteers & Visitor Services
