ETSU Votes is hoping to help students become more politically engaged by holding an essay contest.
The essay topic asks students to write about one issue that they recently changed their mind about, and what led them to do so.
“Politics can be highly divisive,” said Seth Manning, the graduate assistant for ETSU Votes. “Even if it’s not politics, the world today can just be highly divisive, so we just want to see how students are sort of overcoming that and really having discourse and changing their minds when new information is presented.”
Manning said they chose to hold an essay contest to not only get students thinking about politics but also to improve their writing skills.
“I think really, we wanted something where students could grow in terms of their abilities and their skills, and so when we were thinking about this, you know, we could’ve just done a raffle contest or something that was based more on luck than skill,” said Manning. “Eventually, we just sort of decided that if we can improve their writing skills, and we can judge them based off their writing skills at the same time, it’s more academic, and it just sort of fits better with the collegiate environment.”
The essay should be 300 to 500 words in length and will be judged by a panel of faculty, staff and students on theme knowledge, development and clarity. There are also prizes for the top three essays, with the first-place essayist winning $75, second-place winning $50 and third-place winning $25.
Manning hopes the essay contest will inspire college students who may not enjoy politics to become more politically aware of issues on their campus and in their communities.
“At the end of the day, politics really does strike at everything, and it affects everything else in life whether people like politics or not,” said Manning. “I think a lot of students coming into college may not have an affinity for politics, or they may feel it’s not important but really what we want to say to them is its going to affect you regardless. So even if you don’t love politics, you have to be engaged with what’s going on, and you have to be civically engaged.”
