FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2012
Contact: Lionel Foster , Assistant Program Director
410-735-6196 lfoster@jhu.edu
Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Announces
Race and Politics Essay Contest
BALTIMORE—The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY), which helps gifted students discover and develop their academic abilities, is encouraging middle school students in the
Baltimore area to think critically about the role race plays in public policy through an essay contest.
As the presidential election draws closer, CTY is asking students to consider their own experiences and how they might relay some of their concerns to national leaders. The essay prompt is, “How do ideas about race affect life in your community? If you could speak to the President of the United States, what would you ask him to do about these issues?”
All contest entrants will be invited to a workshop on race and politics led by Dr. Howard Stevenson, associate professor at the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Contest entrants must live in the Baltimore metropolitan area and currently be in sixth, seventh or eighth grade. Essays should be between 400 and 700 words, must be the student’s original work, and cannot have appeared in print or online elsewhere. Essays will be judged by a panel of professional staff from
The Center for Talented Youth. One winner per grade will be announced at the race and politics workshop at 7:00 pm on November 1 in the Curran Conference Room at City Hall, 100 North Holliday
Street. Each grade level grand prize winner will receive an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet computer.
Entries must be received by 5 p.m. on Friday, October 26 using any of the means of contact listed below. Email entries are preferred.
“Since our founding more than 30 years ago, we’ve seen young people from around the world flourish when given the opportunity to use their considerable abilities to dissect complex problems,” said
Elizabeth Albert, Senior Director of Academic Programs and Services for CTY. “And we’re especially happy to be a part of this process of discovery for students in Baltimore.”
The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY) ( www.cty.jhu.edu
) conducts the nation’s oldest and most extensive academic talent search and offers educational programming for students with exceptionally high academic ability. CTY parallels and complements a gifted child’s regular classroom experience. The Center’s programs and students have been profiled in
The New York Times ,
Wall Street Journal , New Yorker , and other premier American publications.
E-mail submissions to markriding@jhu.edu
Fax submissions to 410-735-6220 ATTN: Mark Riding
Mail submissions to: Race and Politics Essay Contest c/o Mark Riding
McAuley Hall, Suite 400, 5801 Smith Ave. Baltimore, MD 21209