Students invited to enter ‘Your Voice’ essay contest

History provides powerful lessons about the dangers of hate and intolerance. 

People must aim to learn from them and not repeat those same dangerous mistakes, the organizers of an essay contest for young people say. 

The Mobile Museum of Tolerance, MMOT, created by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, hopes this message resonates in school districts across Illinois this spring as part of its latest “Your Voice: Changing the World, One Speech at a Time” statewide essay contest for students from 6th through 12th grades. 

The Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes is sponsoring the essay contest as part of its support of the mission of the MMOT.

The contest asks students to respond to these words from Simon Wiesenthal: 

“The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense against repetition.” 

Submissions, with a three-minute speech of 450 words or less, are due Friday, March 22. 

First-place winners in each category will receive a MacBook, with other prizes for the runners-up.

The Your Voice contest asks Illinois students from 6th through 12th grade to:

•Write a three-minute written speech (of 450 words maximum) on how this Wiesenthal quote applies to them, and ways we must be proactive to address intolerance, hate and bigotry.

•Submit the speech/essay in a Word document by Friday, March 22, 2024, to mmot@wiesenthal.com. Submissions must include the name and age of contestant, the name of contestant’s school and contact details for the contestant.

Five finalists from each category (grades 6-8 and grades 9-12) will be chosen on March 29 to compete virtually on April 14 by performing their speech/essay in video submissions virtually. A distinguished panel of judges will review the submissions and select winners.