essay well-focused on the question/topic selected
Rules & Requirements
Please Note Text from essays may be used for research purposes to identify misconceptions, misunderstandings, and areas of student interest in genetics. Student text may be published on the ASHG website, newsletter, or in other ASHG publications.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. The text of the student’s essay must be his or her own words unless quotations are explicitly noted. If plagiarism is suspected during any point of the contest, the essay in question will be examined. Essays found to contain the uncited work of others will be disqualified and the student’s teacher will be notified. Plagiarism.org gives a helpful explanation of what plagiarism is.
How many essays can one student submit? Only one entry per student.
How many essays can one teacher submit on behalf of students? Each teacher may submit up to six student essays per class, for up to three classes.
What are low-quality a high-quality sources? A low-quality source is one that doesn’t guarantee accurate information, such as Wikipedia. High-quality sources include research journals, such as those accessible through PubMed.
What is included in the 750-word count, and what is not?
Should references have a separate page? The reference list will be submitted separately in the “references” section of the submission site. Everything will be included on one page once the essay is submitted.
Is there a standard font or margin size preferred? No. Once the essay is copied and pasted into the submission site, it will be formatted to fit our standard margins and fonts.
How do I submit my essay if my teacher cannot do it for me? Try to find any other teacher or guidance counselor at your school who can submit for you. If this isn’t an option, please email us at [email protected] .
Can my guidance counselor or another school administrator submit my essay for me? Yes.
Can I submit for my student who is currently studying abroad? Students must be studying at the same school as the teacher who submits their essays.
Can I change information after I have submitted? No, please make sure all information is correct before submitting because it will be final.
How does the teacher vouch for the originality of the student’s work? Your submission represents your authentication that the essays are the original work of your students.
I submitted late. Will my essay still be judged? Late submissions will not be judged.
Where’s the confirmation email? It may take some time for the email to get to you. If you haven’t received it by the end of the day, either check your junk mailbox or double check that the email address you provided is correct. If neither of those options work, email [email protected] .
Summarized below are some of the most common issues judges note in reading submitted essays.
Check out the links below for excerpts from past winners’ essays!
Want to become a judge? If you are a current-year ASHG member, you will receive an email each February inviting you to volunteer. If you did not receive the email or cannot locate it, please contact [email protected] . You can also volunteer by the visiting the ASHG involvement page. You may forward the judge recruiting email ONLY to fellow ASHG current members. The deadline to sign up as a judge is the usually the end of February for that year’s Contest. If you have questions about future years, please contact [email protected]
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Connect with us, writing contests & publication opportunities for youth.
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Know about a great writing contest for teens or young adults? Feel free to reach out to Kenna McCafferty at [email protected] .
FIRST CHAPTERS CONTEST A Writing Contest in Partnership with Penguin Random House and Electric Lit Girls Write Now is proud to team up with Penguin Random House and Electric Lit for an exciting opportunity to be published on the Electric Lit website and win a cash prize of $500! The First Chapters contest is part of Penguin Random House’s and Electric Lit’s commitment to support Girls Write Now in amplifying diverse voices. To qualify your first Chapter MUST:
SELECT YOUTH CONTESTS
The Alexandrian Review is an entirely student run international youth literary magazine and they are looking for submissions. To submit, applicants must be 10-20 years of age. The Alexandrian Review receives any submissions within their guidelines. While they do emphasize the theme of amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, they are happy to accept and provide feedback on any works. The submission window will be open from April 7 – July 31. Learn more about the submission requirements here .
Bennington’s Young Writers Awards exists to promote excellence in writing at the high school level. Included genres are poetry, fiction and nonfiction. A first, second, and third place winner is selected in each category. The details below can be found on their Submittable page at https://www.bennington.edu/events/young-writers-awards .
Awards & Rules First-place winners in each category are awarded a prize of $1,000; second-place winners receive $500; third-place winners receive $250.
There is no entry fee.
All entries must be original work reviewed, approved and sponsored by a high school teacher. We will use your sponsoring teacher as a contact for the competition should we have any questions. For homeschooled students, please contact a mentor to sponsor your writing.
Young Writers Award finalists and winners are also eligible for undergraduate scholarships at Bennington. YWA finalists who apply, are admitted, and enroll at Bennington will receive a $10,000 scholarship every year for four years, for a total of $40,000. YWA winners who apply, are admitted, and enroll at Bennington will receive a $15,000 scholarship every year for four years, for a total of $60,000.
Black Lawrence Press has annual awards and competitions for a variety of genres. The schedule below, as well as individual descriptions for each award, can be found on their Submittable page at https://blacklawrencepress.submittable.com/submit . The Big Moose Prize: Open December 1 – January 31 (Open competition, novels) The Hudson Prize: Open February 1 – March 31 (Open competition, poetry and short story collections) The Spring Black River Chapbook Competition : Open April 1 – May 31 (Open competition, poetry and prose chaps) Open Reading Period 1: Between June 1 – June 30 The St. Lawrence Book Award: Open July 1- August 31 (First book competition, poetry and short story collections) The Fall Black River Chapbook Competition: Open September 1 – October 31 (Open competition, poetry and prose chaps) Open Reading Period 2: Between November 1 – November 30 (Please note that Black Lawrence Press occasionally offers early bird specials on their contests. These specials allow authors to submit their manuscripts ahead of time at a discounted rate.)
The American Writers Museum, John Estey Student Writing Competition, has opened its 4th annual student writing competition. To learn more, visit American Writers Museum
PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMERGING WRITERS
THE ADROIT JOURNAL is run by high school students, college students, and emerging writers. Adroit publishes within “over 21” and “under 21” categories, so your writing will appear alongside great work by writers of any age. Adroit publishes fiction and poetry, and includes art and photography. They will reopen our submission reading period in January 2021. Find them online at: http://www.theadroitjournal.org/
AFFINITY MAGAZINE works to spotlight teen voices about current events. We find that the media sometimes forgets the voices of teens on many topics! So we are here to give them a voice. Affinity Magazine allows you to get your writing published and read by thousands of people! You can get your work published and sharpen up on your writing so you can write for The New York Times one day (hopefully!!). For ages 13-20. Visit http://affinitymagazine.us/write-for-us/ for more information on all the different
AGNI is Boston University’s well-respected journal. It appears in both print and online. AGNI submissions are not limited to high school writers, but the journal is known to accept and publish lots of work by new writers. Get published in high school at AGNI and you’ve taken an important step to becoming a writer in the real world! Find them online at: http://www.bu.edu/agni/submit.htm
THE ALCOTT YOUTH MAGAZINE is a magazine devoted to sharing the written perspectives of young people. The magazine publishes work on a variety of topics, including current events, young adult life, and women’s rights issues. Published works are primarily focused on young women from ages thirteen to twenty-two. However, anyone who is interested in sharing their voice is encouraged to submit to the magazine, regardless of age or gender. The Alcott Youth Magazine is open to publishing articles, essays, short stories, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, or any other works. Visit https://www.alcottmagazine.com/submit
THE AUDACITY is Roxanne Gay’s bi-monthly newsletter where she features emerging writers with fewer than three article/essay/short story publications and no published books or book contracts. The Audacity features only non-fiction and is particularly interested in literary essays and memoir. All essays are paid a flat fee of $2,000. For more information, visit https://gay.submittable.com/submit
BLUE MARBLE publishes four times a year and accepts submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, essays, opinion pieces, travel writing, photography and art on a rolling basis. Blue Marble looks for new work from writers ages 13-21 that hasn’t been published anywhere else either online or in print. For more details on how to submit your work, visit https://bluemarblereview.com/submit/ .
DIALOGUE HUMANITIES is an online, biannual journal that publishes high quality, humanities-focused essays written by middle and high school students. Essays will be reviewed by a panel of experts in various humanities-based fields and will be chosen based on the strength of the writing, the author’s familiarity with his or her chosen topic, and the appropriateness of the essay’s content. Dialogue Humanities Review aims to include academic essays from a wide variety of fields, including but not limited to: African-American Studies; American Studies; Anthropology; Archaeology; Art Criticism, History, and Theory; Classics; Ethics; Ethnic Studies; Folklore; Geography; History; History and Ethics of Science; International Studies; Jurisprudence; Languages and Linguistics; Literature; Music History and Criticism; Philosophy; Political Science; Psychology; Religion and Comparative Religion; Sociology; Social Sciences; Theatre History and Criticism; and Women’s Studies. If selected, authors will be asked to revise their essays to ready it for publication. Please visit http://dialoguehumanitiesreview.org/about/ or contact Jessica Rafferty at [email protected] for more information.
ÉLAN LITERARY MAGAZINE accepts original fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, plays, and all kinds of art from students ages 14-18 in locations internationally. Élan produces two online editions a year, one in the Fall/Winter and another in the Spring/Summer. The two editions are combined into a single Print Edition each Summer. For more information on how to submit, visit: https://www.elanlitmag.com/submit .
EMBER only publishes twice a year, but this beautiful and dreamy journal of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction appeals to all age groups. Although it doesn’t exclusively publish young writers, submissions from writers and artists ages 10 to 18 are strongly encouraged. Submissions open March 1, 2023 . For more details, visit them online at: http://emberjournal.org/ .
ENOUGH PLAYS is taking submissions from teen writers (ages 13-19) of 10-MIN PLAYS confronting the issue of gun violence. Six plays will be selected by a panel of astonishing writers to be published and performed nationwide and the writers will receive $500. Deadline for submissions is April 20, 2023 . Visit them online: https://www.enoughplays.com/amplify
GIRLS RIGHT THE WORLD is a literary journal inviting young, female-identified writers and artists, ages 14–21, to submit work for consideration for the fourth annual issue. They believe girls’ voices transform the world for the better. We accept poetry, prose, and visual art of any style or theme. Girls Right The World ask to be the first to publish your work in North America; after publication, the rights return to you. Please include a note mentioning your age, where you’re from, and a bit about your submission. Send your best work, in English or English translation, to [email protected] between September 1 and December 31.
HANGING LOOSE PRESS has had a section of high school writing in their issues since 1968. Hanging Loose has long been known for its special interest in new writers. This press reads manuscripts throughout the year, accepting poetry and prose. For more details on the submission process, visit https://www.hangingloosepress.com/submissions/ .
HELLOGIGGLES a positive online community for female-identifying readers (although others are always welcome!) covering the latest in beauty and style, relationships, career and money, culture, identity, and more. Featuring a mix of news, personal essays, reported features, and service, we’re committed to providing our readers with smart, thoughtful, and relatable content representing a range of voices. We were founded by Zooey Deschanel, Molly McAleer, and Sophia Rossi in 2011 as a place on the Internet to inspire a smile, and years later, we’re still doing just that. Tor ages 14 and up.
HOT DISH MAGAZINE , an online journal serving up a bubbling mixture of poetry and fiction by teens (grades 9–12), wants your voice to be heard! We award cash prizes for fiction, poetry, and the Hot Dish Challenge. Our submission period is October-January. Visit us at www.hotdishmagazine.com . The GOAT ( the-goat.org ) publishes student writing on everything sports related and is looking for new submissions. Students can email their writing pieces to me. No work is rejected, and editors provide any mentoring and editing necessary. Students will see their work online within weeks and can include the link on their college or summer school applications.
ICE LOLLY REVIEW: Ice Lolly Review accepts a variety of pieces including, creative nonfiction, fiction, haikus, poems, plays, spoken word, and etc. They are looking for pieces that have a strong, solid voice and aren’t afraid of delving into deep topics. For more details, go to https://www.icelollyreview.com/submissions .
jGIRLS MAGAZINE: jGirls Magazine accepts submissions on an ongoing basis from self-identifying Jewish teenage girls and gender-expansive youth ages 13-19. You can submit articles, essays, fiction, poetry, cultural reviews, humor, photographs, music, videos, artwork and other creative materials. You can submit as often as you’d like. For more details, visit https://jgirlsmagazine.org/submission-guidelines/ .
KIDSPIRIT is a nonprofit online magazine and community by and for youth to engage each other about life’s big questions in an open and inclusive spirit. Its mission is to promote mutual understanding among 11- to 17-year-olds of diverse backgrounds and support their development into world citizens with strong inner grounding. KidSpirit is in syndication on the Huffington Post and Spirituality & Practice and has won numerous awards from major educational, parenting, and spiritual organizations. Visit the Get Involved section to learn more about publishing your work, becoming an editor, or facilitating a conversation about one of the 50 themes KidSpirit contributors have explored: https://kidspiritonline.com/get-involved/
THE LUMIERE REVIEW is a literary magazine dedicated to shining the light on all voices through poetry, prose, and art. General submissions are now open. Submissions to the forthcoming Issue 08 of The Lumiere Review in poetry, prose (creative fiction and non-fiction), and all forms of art can be sent to [email protected] . Details on how to submit and format your work can be found at: https://lumierereview.com/submit .
NARRATIVE MAGAZINE A prize of $2,500 and publication in Narrative is given annually for a short story, a short short story, an essay, a memoir, or an excerpt from a longer work of fiction or creative nonfiction. A second-place prize of $1,000 is also awarded. The editors will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit up to 15,000 words of prose with a $27 entry fee by March 28. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines. Deadline, March 28, 2024 at midnight PST.
POLYPHONY LIT: invites submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction from high school students worldwide. Student editors provide feedback to all submissions, including the ones not accepted for publication. Submissions are open from February 1-28, 2022 and June 1-30, 2022. More details can be found at https://www.polyphonylit.org/.
TEEN INK is one of the most popular and diverse writing spaces to get published in high school. The broad categories for publication reflect the diversity of writing that this lively online magazine celebrates. Some publication categories include: community service, travel and culture, the environment, health, reviews of TV shows and video games, and college essays, among the more traditional poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Visit online at: http://www.teenink.com
THE TRAILBLAZER LITERARY MAGAZINE is an international high school publication dedicated to push for cultural diversity through creative writing. For general submissions, the magazine accepts fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction all year, from middle and high school students between 14 and 18 years old. In addition, they host the Cultural Heritage Writing Contest, which welcomes submissions about the young creatives’ cultural background, ancestry, values, customs, etc. Visit online at: https://www.thetrailblazerreview.com/ TRAVELNITCH was founded in 2018 to encourage a love of travel and make it more accessible to all families. Travelnitch believes travel has the power to changes lives, open minds, and build stronger communities. They love to feature new & aspiring travel writers who can delight and entertain readers. They currently need support developing family-centric travel content to engage kids (and sometimes parents) in fun and innovative ways. If you are a writer who loves to travel, this could be the perfect fit for you—turn your own passion into an inspiring story for our readers! https://travelnitch.org/writers/storyteller-spotlight/
TYRIAN INK is an independent LGBTQIA+ press that is dedicated to uplifting youth voices. TYRIAN INK is currently open to chapbook manuscripts of any genre (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, hybrid, etc) with a minimum of 30 pages and a maximum of 50 pages in length. Please only submit if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community and are 22 or below. Writers will be paid $250 for their manuscripts and receive a percent of royalties for every chapbook sold. https://tyrianinkpress.com/home/submission-guidelines/
WRITING RESIDENCIES & FELLOWSHIPS
Hedgebrook’s mission is to support visionary women-identified writers,18 and older, whose stories and ideas shape our culture now and for generations to come. Writers must be women, which is inclusive of transgender women and female-identified individuals.
Hedgebrook’s Writer-in-Residence Program supports writers from all over the world for fully-funded residencies of two to four weeks (travel is not included and is the responsibility of the writer to arrange and pay for). Up to 6 writers can be in residence at a time, each housed in their own handcrafted cottage. They spend their days in solitude – writing, reading, taking walks in the woods on the property or on nearby Double Bluff beach. In the evenings, “The Gathering” is a social time for residents to connect and share over their freshly prepared meals.
Writers can apply here for a residency in Fiction, Non-fiction, Playwriting, Poetry, Screenwriting/TV Writing, or Songwriting. Read more and apply at https://www.hedgebrook.org/writers-in-residence.
MacDowell’s mission is to nurture the arts by offering creative individuals an inspiring environment in which they can produce enduring works of the imagination. We encourage applications from artists representing the widest possible range of perspectives and demographics, and who are investigating an unlimited array of inquiries and concerns.
MacDowell is currently accepting applications for the Spring Summer 2023 residency season (March – August 2023). Learn more at https://macdowell.slideroom.com/#/Login.
The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is a $8,000 unrestricted cash grant available to artists living in New York State and/or one of the Indian Nations located therein. This grant is awarded in fifteen different disciplines over a three-year period (five categories a year) and the application is free to complete. The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is not a project grant, but is intended to fund an artist’s vision or voice, at all levels of their artistic development.
Learn more at https://www.nyfa.org/awards-grants/artist-fellowships/ .
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Hello and welcome to the announcement of our Essay Writing Contest Scholarship winners!
As usual, we’re super excited to cut straight to the chase, but we can’t do so without a quick recap.
And there are things worth mentioning, to be honest. Last year, we stated that we received a lot more submissions than anticipated, with 773 works in total and 578 evaluated papers. Well, this year, the record was broken again, as we received 783 essays and accepted 659 of them. Unfortunately, we had to reject 124 works for various reasons: contest requirements not being fulfilled, wrong topic, plagiarism, or work format issues.
We are thankful to all the participants for filling this contest with creativity and bright ideas!
Here’s a short reminder of the evaluation criteria that we used:
On average, all 659 that we evaluated got 68.4 points. Good job!
With all the statistics out of the way, let’s name this year’s winners!
1st place and the $1,000 prize goes to Isabella Barricklow with the essay “The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard: School as Protective and Preventive Factor Against Cyberbullying,” which got 90 points. Congratulations!
The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard: School as Protective and Preventive Factor Against Cyberbullying The internet’s vastness makes the issue of cyberbullying seem as evasive as water slipping through one’s fingers. However, to effectively understand and work towards eliminating the complex phenomenon, an institution must take responsibility for the issue, mainly, comprehending its intricate causes and functions across communities and establishing systems and programs towards its prevention. This responsibility should fall to schools; while not always the location where cyberbullying takes place, schools control its progress and develop solutions with consideration for intersectionality in a way that parents and other organizations may lack the resources to do and are the most adequately regulated, pedagogically-equipped, and consistent resource for education acquisition and distribution on cyberbullying. Teacher training and professional skill are factors in successfully addressing intersectional elements of cyberbullying and ensuring homologous, pedagogical awareness and prevention education. The experience of cyberbullying will be different for students based on their diverse backgrounds as well as their developmental stages. For example, Emily Vogels finds that low household income increases the likelihood of cyberbullying and race influences student cynicism of law enforcement efforts to reduce cyberbullying (1). Additionally, students in higher and further education continue to experience cyberbullying but are less likely to seek help, expressing moral disengagement and less empathy (Myers and Cowie). Acknowledging these intersections in the issue of cyberbullying must fall to professionals who are continually trained to do so. Research suggests teachers and administrators who undergo district professional development and training sessions gain the cultural competency required to do this and can even improve student academic outcomes and increase educator “professional efficacy” in doing so (Hamdan and Coloma 110 Furthermore, districts and teachers have the resources and pedagogical structures, or can acquire them, to carry out best practices in cyberbullying prevention. Tozzo et al. find that the most effective cyberbullying interventions were education-based and interactive, whereas “prescriptive and juridical” interventions were much less effective. However, to implement these educational programs, both “complex knowledge of cyberbullying” and “expertise and competencies in the field of media education” are needed (Tomczyk and Wloch 14). Districts and educational environments can provide teachers with this expertise in a relatively homologous way, monitored and assessed by professional development requirements and district standards. In contrast, parents are capable of educating their children on these issues, but there is no way of enforcing this, knowing if resources are accessible for all parents, assessing their understanding and progress, or ensuring that all parents implement research-based, intersectional, best practices. Yosep et al. find that a vast majority of parents both felt and demonstrated they lacked knowledge regarding cyberbullying and resources to address it, and the strategies and resources they do use are varied (Yosep et al.). Teaching, however, is a regulated profession where trained professionals undergo constant observation, assessment, and development where cyberbullying education and prevention strategies can be pedagogically informed and monitored, leading to better results. Finally, education laws give schools the advantage of state-required, mandatory attendance for twelve years, making them a setting where information can be consistently shared across students’ educational lifespans. Tozzo et al. find that, across studies, longer versions of intervention programs targeting cyberbullying had more positive outcomes when compared with shorter versions. Tomczyk and Wloch’s research supports this, stating a weakness in programs is their occasional use when they should be administered more frequently (20). Additionally, students outside the K-12 educational system have less avenues for help and resources, especially those who transition out of the obligatory educational system (Myers and Cowie). While some students may not have consistent parental messaging, life experiences, or access to resources in their home lives or when they leave school, it can generally be assumed that school will be a consistent, actively controlled, and regulated setting in their lives for at least twelve years where the issue of cyberbullying can be addressed continually and empower them to address issues autonomously once out of school. School, as an institution whose pedagogy and practices are constantly evolving and undergoing assessment and a consistent setting for students, must be entrusted with reducing cyberbullying. If knowledge is both a weapon against cyberbullying and a healing tool, then schools are the fortresses whose walls protect and enrich the lives of children, creating lasting change in society. Works Cited Hamdan, Suha, and Roland Sintos Coloma. “Assessing Teachers’ Cultural Competency.” The Journal of Educational Foundations , vol. 35, no. 1, Caddo Gap Press, Spring 2022, pp. 108-128. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1358841.pdf. Accessed 16 June 2024. Myers, Carrie-Anne, and Helen Cowie. “Cyberbullying across the lifespan of education: Issues and interventions from school to University.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , vol. 16, no. 7, 4 Apr. 2019, p. 1217, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071217. Accessed 16 June 2024. Tomczyk, Łukasz, and Anna Włoch. “Cyberbullying in the light of challenges of school-based prevention.” International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) , vol. 7, no. 3, 20 Dec. 2019, pp. 13–26, https://doi.org/10.5937/ijcrsee1903013t. Accessed 16 June 2024. Tozzo, Pamela, et al. “Family and educational strategies for cyberbullying prevention: A systematic review.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , vol. 19, no. 16, 22 Aug. 2022, p. 10452, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610452. Accessed 16 June 2024. Vogels, Emily A. “Teens and Cyberbullying 2022.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center , 15 Dec. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/12/15/teens-and-cyberbullying-2022/. Accessed 16 June 2024. Yosep, Iyus, et al. “Preventing cyberbullying and reducing its negative impact on students using e-parenting: A scoping review.” Sustainability , vol. 15, no. 3, 17 Jan. 2023, p. 1752, https://doi.org/10.3390/su15031752.
2nd place and the $500 prize received by Sebastian LaRoche with the essay “Adjusting Pupils – The Future of AI in Education,” which got 88 points. Well done!
Adjusting Pupils – The Future of AI in Education A new sun sits on the horizon. Should we prepare the solar panels? Wait for our pupils to adjust? Students of the future, a different type of pupil, face similar questions. Artificial Intelligence has immense potential for improving Education, but its usage has clear risks, including job-replacement, privacy, and socioeconomic disparities. In this essay, I will not refute these risks but propose methods of obtaining the benefits of AI-assisted education while adapting to these and other concerns. While AI’s continuous growth and economic potential might threaten many labor-intensive jobs currently occupied by humans, human teachers are well away from being replaced. Sarah Hanawald, Senior Director of the Association for Academic Leaders, argues that while “AI tools can help provide personalized learning for a student,” it would require a teacher’s oversight. Not only is student motivation correlated with a positive student-teacher relationship (Rimm-Kaufman), but datasets AI uses in its Algorithm are limited by bias and human error. With an AI-based learning system, teachers and professors also gain insight about their students’ learning styles (Rouhiainen). Therefore, it is evident that AI would best augment teachers rather than replace them. Perhaps a hybrid classroom with information introduced by humans and further explained by machines could accomplish this. It is no secret that technology’s growth poses a threat to user privacy with the misuse of personal data. As Cameron F. Kerry from the Center for Technology Innovation puts it, “As artificial intelligence evolves, it magnifies the ability to use personal information in ways that can intrude on privacy interests by raising analysis of personal information to new levels of power and speed.” With AI-assisted education, monitoring students, even for the sake of tracking learning styles, could potentially risk those student’s personal information. However, what is more infrequently talked about is the effect this would have on the student. Daniel Buck at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute likens the experience of a student in this environment to a prisoner of the theoretical Panopticon, a circular prison popularized by French philosopher Michel Foucault in which, through a light at the center of the facility, prisoners would feel under constant surveillance. Thus, proper behavior would be fostered. What happens to a student in this situation? “A report from the National Association of State Boards of Education suggests that students are less likely to feel safe enough for free expression” (Buck). The National Library of Medicine links several more issues with constant surveillance, including heightened anxiety and decreased mental health. Fortunately, by keeping this in mind, creating a solution is far from impossible. Pairing the hybrid classroom concept from before with legal enforcement of minimizing data collection might be able to inhibit privacy concerns and minimize student surveillance. It is a fact that “students routinely receive dramatically different learning opportunities based on their social status” (Darling-Hammond). This is mainly due to resource disparity, with higher-poverty schools unable to afford updated technology. Implementing AI in schools is reminiscent of when Internet access was doled out unequally. Since “People without (Internet) connectivity are often those with lower incomes” (Muller), it created a “digital divide” that obstructs social mobility, and if only wealthier schools can utilize AI, why wouldn’t the same happen now but worse? It’s as if the state of Education is an arms race, and only those born able to afford the means can succeed. The Learning Policy Institute also describes this as a “cumulative disadvantage” and proposes that, for social equity to be achieved concerning resource disparities in Education, “equal access for these (impoverished) students requires additional resources.” This might mean upgrading lower-income schools with AI first or making sure this revolutionary resource is available to everyone regarding economic standing. In conclusion, to obtain the benefits of AI-assisted education without replacing jobs, lowering student privacy, or threatening social mobility, I propose heavy research into a new education system. This might mean a hybrid classroom, limits to how businesses use data, or strategic allocation of AI as a resource. But no matter the solution, I hope we as a people can let our eyes adjust to the new sun on our horizon in the hopes that we will someday see a classroom perfected. Works Cited Buck, Daniel. “AI is a serious threat to student privacy.” The Thomas B. Fordham Institute , 5 October 2023, https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/ai-serious-threat-student-privacy. Accessed 28 June 2024. Hammond, Linda. “Inequality in Teaching and Schooling: How Opportunity Is Rationed to Students of Color in America.” NCBI, 2001, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223640/. Accessed 28 June 2024. Hanawald, Sarah. “AI Won’t Replace Teachers—But It Could Help Them.” ERB, 12 September 2023, https://www.erblearn.org/blog/ai-wont-replace-teacher-intelligence/. Accessed 28 June 2024. Humane, Sonal. “Exploring the Impact of Security Technologies on Mental Health: A Comprehensive Review.” NCBI, 5 February 2024, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10918303/. Accessed 28 June 2024. Muller, Charlie. “What Is the Digital Divide?” Internet Society , 3 March 2022, https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2022/03/what-is-the-digital-divide/. Accessed 28 June 2024. Oakes, Jeannie, et al. “Adequate and Equitable Education in High-Poverty Schools: Barriers and Opportunities in North Carolina.” Learning Policy Institute , 18 June 2021, https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/leandro-high-poverty-schools-brief. Accessed 28 June 2024. Rimm, Sara, and Lia Sandilos. “Improving students’ relationships with teachers.” American Psychological Association , 2010, https://www.apa.org/education-career/k12/relationships. Accessed 28 June 2024. Rouhiainen, Lasse. “How AI and Data Could Personalize Higher Education.” Harvard Business Review , 14 October 2019, https://hbr.org/2019/10/how-ai-and-data-could-personalize-higher-education. Accessed 28 June 2024. Wheeler, Tom. “Protecting privacy in an AI-driven world | Brookings.” Brookings Institution , 10 February 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/protecting-privacy-in-an-ai-driven-world/. Accessed 28 June 2024.
As you can see, the competition was quite fierce this year.
Again, big thanks to everyone who participated in the contest and cast their votes.
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It freed russian prisoners of conscience as well as westerners taken hostage by vladimir putin .
I T IS THE biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the cold war. It involved 26 prisoners held in seven different countries, including Russian dissidents; spies serving the Kremlin; American journalists; and a German mercenary. It resembled a remake of a spy film set in the 1980s, when Vladimir Putin was serving as a KGB officer in Dresden.
On the afternoon of August 1st seven aircraft from six countries landed in Ankara, bringing to fruition months of secret negotiations. Among those whom the Russians released was Evan Gershkovich , a reporter for the Wall Street Journal imprisoned by Russia since March 2023 on trumped-up espionage charges. Another was Paul Whelan, an American ex-marine, who had been arrested in late 2018 while attending a friend’s wedding. The youngest prisoner, 19-year-old Kevin Lick, is a Russian-German dual citizen who was jailed for taking pictures of a Russian military base. The oldest, 71-year-old Oleg Orlov, has been a dissident and activist since the Soviet era, and was co-chair of Memorial, a banned human-rights organisation.
Especially noteworthy were Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, two opposition politicians. Both have been the most prominent voices of dissent in Russia since the death in custody of Alexei Navalny in February. Both had chosen prison over silence.
In return, Mr Putin got back the sort of people essential to his conduct of hybrid warfare against the West: assassins, smugglers, hackers and the deep-cover agents known as “illegals”. The most valuable asset was Vadim Krasikov, a colonel in the FSB , Russia’s main security agency. He had been jailed in Germany, where he had murdered a former Chechen rebel in broad daylight in central Berlin in 2019. Ensuring the release of such people helps Mr Putin command the loyalty of his security services.
Mr Putin initially hoped to negotiate directly with America about swapping Mr Gershkovich for Mr Krasikov, according to Christo Grozev of Bellingcat, an open-source intelligence outfit. Mr Grozev, who earlier helped to identify the Russian agents responsible for poisoning Navalny and Mr Kara-Murza, was involved in negotiations over the prisoner exchange, which began more than two years ago. Germany, he says, insisted on including Navalny in the swap.
Navalny’s murder in a Siberian prison in February put negotiations on hold, Mr Grozev says. The Germans faced a dilemma: releasing the assassin would “reward Putin…despite Navalny’s death”, but it was needed to gain the freedom of “dozens of Russians and wrongly imprisoned Americans”. In April Germany indicated that to get Mr Krasikov, Mr Putin would have to release several political prisoners. Negotiations accelerated after Rico Krieger, a 30-year-old German, was taken hostage in unclear circumstances in Belarus (a Russian satellite state), and sentenced to death.
Earlier this week Aleksander Lukashenko, Belarus’s autocratic president, pardoned Mr Krieger, which suggested that a broader exchange might be coming. Other clues of an imminent exchange included Mr Gershkovich’s sentencing on July 19th, earlier than expected, and the sudden disappearance of Russia’s high-profile political prisoners from their penal colonies a week later. Interested parties tracked the flight paths of Russian jets between airports near the camps. Relatives, friends and lawyers held their breath.
It all felt like a return to the cold war—not just in style but in substance. Once again, the West was claiming the moral high ground by standing up for dissidents, and treating human rights as an essential condition for peace in Europe.
To be sure, there have been big prisoner exchanges more recently. In 2010 the Kremlin got back 11 of its sleeper agents in exchange for 11 citizens convicted of spying for Western countries. (Among those sent West was Sergei Skripal, a double agent whom Russia tried to kill with Novichok, a nerve poison, in Britain eight years later.) But the current exchange is different. It also includes Russian politicians and prisoners of conscience who had chosen to go to jail, in protest against Mr Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Mr Kara-Murza is also a victim of suspected Novichok poisoning, in 2015 and again in 2017. He returned to Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. On his return he attacked Mr Putin’s regime as “not just corrupt” but “a regime of murderers”, and was soon arrested and sentenced to 25 years in jail for treason. He spent much of his time in solitary confinement. Mr Yashin, a charismatic politician and an ally of Navalny, spoke out about Russian atrocities in Ukraine. He was sentenced to eight and a half years for discrediting the army, telling the court he would rather “spend ten years behind bars” than “burn in silent shame for the blood your government spills”.
Germany has long been seen as taking too transactional an approach to Russia. By insisting on the inclusion of political prisoners and activists in the swap, it reasserted the value of human rights as a core element of international security. For Natan Sharansky, an Israeli politician and former Soviet prisoner of conscience, it recalled old struggles. “It is as if I am reliving my release,” he told this newspaper. Though exchanging political activists for assassins and spies might seem unfair, “every time one more person is released from the control of a totalitarian regime, the power of that regime is weakened.”
Russian human-right activists and lawyers were quick to point out that Mr Putin’s regime is still holding hundreds of prisoners of conscience. They include Ivan Safronov, a journalist imprisoned for writing about corruption; Dmitry Ivanov, a maths student and anti-war blogger serving eight and a half years; Evgeniya Berkovich, sentenced to six years in jail for her poetry and theatre productions; and Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow council member sentenced to seven years for criticising the war. The release of some prominent prisoners on August 1st should not obscure the plight of the many still in captivity. ■
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Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.
JD Vance embodies the pros and cons of political competition in a divided America. He helps, and he hurts.
GZero Media broke this out neatly in a piece it posted on his “pluses and minuses” during the Republican National Convention:
Vance strengthens Donald Trump’s “champion of the working man” message — a Republican rebranding away from its strongly pro-business past. We also saw that emphasis in the striking first-night convention speech from Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, a labor union with 1.3 million members, who accused business and corporate lobbyists of “waging a war against American workers.” That’s not a speech you would have heard at any Republican National Convention of the past century. Vance’s reputation as defender of the globalization-battered working class can help Trump in the electorally crucial Midwest industrial belt states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. But Vance is also an absolutist on restricting abortion, the Republican’s biggest current weakness, according to polls. He has adopted Trump’s line that abortion rules should be left to the states, but his voting record is striking. He favors banning abortions, even if the mother is a victim of rape or incest , as well as laws that allow police to track women who have crossed state lines for an abortion. He has opposed legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization. A poll earlier this month showed that 61 percent of U.S. adults want their state to allow abortion for any reason, and 62 percent support protections for access to IVF.
During the 2022 Ohio Republican Senate primary race, the Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio warned Vance that many Republican voters hold “the perception that he is anti-Trump” because, up until that time, he had been willing to describe the 2020 contest only as “unfair.”
“I think the election was stolen from Trump,” Vance declared in a Republican Senate debate two months later.
In an interview with The Youngstown Vindicator, an Ohio newspaper, Vance contended that there was extensive fraud in 2020, including a “big tech” conspiracy directed by Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook.
Vance told The Vindicator that Zuckerberg spent $420 million “buying up local boards of elections in battleground states of mostly Democratic areas” to “tilt” the vote in Biden’s favor.
Vance didn’t stop there. “We have a fake country right now,” he said. “If a billionaire can go and buy up votes in our biggest geographies and tilt an election, transform who can be president, it’s really, really dangerous stuff.”
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It freed Russian prisoners of conscience as well as Westerners taken hostage by Vladimir Putin | Europe
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