ETSU’s Language and Culture Resource Center is inviting people to tell their story this semester for a chance to earn up to $300 cash prizes. 

The “Stories of Resilience: Life and Identity in East Tennessee” story competition focuses on multimedia presentations of the diverse challenges that individuals face and the well of perseverance that we all draw on to keep pushing.

All entries from any walk of life are encouraged and can take the form of a written, spoken or filmed project. Each category will run a separate competition with the winners of first, second and third place winning $300, $200 and $100 respectively. All entries must be submitted by March 1.

Entry topics and subjects are not limited in any way, but judges are asked to rank stories based on: creativity/uniqueness/originality, resilience factor, potential community impact and overall organization.

Felipe Fiuza, director of the Language Culture Resource Center (Contributed/ETSU)

“This is the first year that it’s happening but I want to repeat it every year,” said Felipe Fiuza, director of the Language Culture Resource Center. “The LCRC provides a service to the community, right? We provide translations and interpretations and that creates a revenue. In previous years that revenue was spent mostly with the Corazón Latino Festival, the celebration that we do downtown. Now because of the pandemic for the second year, we don’t have to spend any money on that and I started to brainstorm other ways to help the community.”  

Entrants are required to submit a pseudonym in order to preserve fairness throughout the competition. The LCRC will publish all entries after the competition, though competitors can opt to remain anonymous. Written submissions will be published in print, audio will be aired over ETSU’s radio channel WETS-FM as well as hosted at the Jonesborough McKinney Center and film projects will be screened during the 2021 Appalachian Film Festival.

“Life is unpredictable, right, and the resilience necessary to make a living in this country with the context that we are living right now still remains,” said Fiuza. “There is a need for a place for everyone to share those stories and to be integrated with society, and that’s why I think this is a great project for the Language and Culture Resource Center.” 

For more information regarding competition entry, visit www.etsu.edu/cas/lcrc/scholarships.php or contact Fiuza at 423-439-8342.

Author

  • Benjamin Gilliam

    Benjamin Gilliam is a junior in the Media and Communication B.A. program majoring in Radio/TV/Film and Journalism with a minor in International Affairs. A Kingsport native, he has experience in many areas including wildlife photography and TV news.

    View all posts