Local Letters for Global Change: A Pulitzer Center Writing Contest

Announcing the 2021 Pulitzer Center letter-writing contest!

K-12 students: Make your voice heard this fall by writing a letter to a local elected representative that explains the global issue you want them to prioritize, shows how it connects to your local community, and proposes a solution. Through this contest, students can practice persuasive writing, civic action, and global citizenship, all while exploring the underreported issues that matter to them through Pulitzer Center reporting.

The Pulitzer Center wants to read and share your letters: tell us, and the world, what's most important to you. Read on for contest details.

Eligibility:

Any current K-12 student across the globe may enter. Letters may be written in English and/or Spanish. Students will be judged separately in high school, middle school, and elementary categories, using the same judging rubric.

Prizes:

We will select three first place winners, including one high school entry (grades 9-12), one middle school entry (grades 5-8), and one elementary entry (grades K-5). First place winners will receive:

• $100 to support global community engagement in your classroom (prize distributed to your class teacher)
• Publication of your letter, photo, and bio on the Pulitzer Center website

Additional finalists will be selected across all grade levels. Finalists will receive:

• Publication of your letter, photo, and bio on the Pulitzer Center website

Deadline:

Saturday, November 13, 2021 11:59pm EST

Entry Guidelines:

1. Go to www.pulitzercenter.org/stories, or the "Suggested Stories" tab above, and choose a news story about a global issue that matters to you. When choosing your news story, consider: Why does this story matter to you? How is the issue it describes connected to your local community?

2. Write a one-page letter to an elected representative in your community that includes the following:

I.   Short summary of a global issue, citing a Pulitzer Center news story.
II.  Explanation of how this global issue connects to you and your community.
III. Suggestion of what action you would like your local representative to take to resolve this issue, or otherwise improve related conditions.

For support writing your letter, see the "Resources for Teachers and Students" tab above.

3. Enter using this Google form. It will request some basic personal/contact information, and you can copy/paste your letter directly into the form.

4. Your representatives' contact information is available online. After submitting your letter to the Pulitzer Center, consider mailing or emailing your letter to them directly!

Support for Preparing Students for the Contest:

Please navigate to the "Resources for Teachers and Students" tab above to find sample letters written by past contest winners, an evaluation rubric, a presentation to introduce the contest, and more. You can also schedule a free, virtual workshop facilitated by a member of the Pulitzer Center education team. To make a request, please email hberk@pulitzercenter.org and let us know...

1. What is the name of your school, and where is it located?
2. What date(s) / time(s) is your class available for a workshop? (Please include time zone)
3. What do you teach, and what grade are your students in?
4. Is your class meeting remotely, in person, or hybrid?
5. What virtual platform would you like to use? (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.)

Access Materials to Write Your Letter or Facilitate a Workshop Independently:

You can find inspiration and models by exploring letters written by past contest winners. Here are the winners and finalists from 2020, 2019, and 2018!

If you are in the United States, you can look up your congressional representative using your zip code at this link. You are welcome to write to this person for the contest. You are also welcome to write to a different elected representative, such as a school board member, mayor, or attorney general.

Schedule a Workshop with the Pulitzer Center Education Team:

Would you like to schedule an interactive virtual workshop to prepare your students for the Local Letters for Global Change contest? Email hberk@pulitzercenter.org to schedule for a free workshop between September 15 and November 13, 2021! Let us know in your email...

1. What is the name of your school, and where is it located?
2. What date(s) / time(s) is your class available for a workshop? (Please include time zone)
3. What do you teach, and what grade are your students in?
4. Is your class meeting remotely, in person, or hybrid?
5. What virtual platform would you like to use? (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.)

Register for a Webinar for Teachers and Students:

In these interactive webinars, participants will explore the Local Letters for Global Change writing contest that asks students to identify and summarize news stories they care about, make local connections to global issues, and propose potential solutions. Participants explore how they can structure persuasive letters to their representatives that argue the importance of and a suggested action on a global issue they explored using Pulitzer Center reporting.

On Wednesday, October 27, 1:00-2:00pm EDT, we will hold a webinar for teachers and students grades 4-8. Register here!

On Thursday, October 28, 3:00-4:00pm EDT, we will hold a webinar for teachers and students grades 7-12. Register here!

Stories for grades 3 and up:

• How COVID Accelerated a Fight Against Food Deserts [Text]
• How Will History Museums Remember This Moment? [Text]
• Performing to an Empty Times Square [Photo, Text]
• To Fully Vaccinate Population, Ghana Faces Scarcity and a Troubled History [Audio]
• No 'Hands-On,' No Field Trips: Riverfront Museum Adapting to COVID-19 Realities [Text]
• Summer Heat Can Lead to Adverse Health Reactions for Residents Across D.C. [Text]
• With New Unions, Argentina’s Domestic Workers Fight Their Way Out of Poverty and Insecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic [Text, Photo]
• Children of the Incarcerated [Text]

Stories for grades 6 and up:

• Moving Migrants: Inside Bangladesh’s Climate Migration [Video]
• Why Immigrants Are Calling on New York to Cancel Rent [Text]
• On the Trail of the DRC's Ebola Outbreak: How Deforestation Can Cause Future Pandemics [Text, Photo]
• People in Parts of Myanmar Are Living Under the World's Longest Internet Shutdown. It's Putting Lives in Danger [Text]
• ‘Are We Not Humans?’ Pakistan’s Domestic Workers Confront Abuse. [Text, Photo]
• ‘Anti-LGBT Ideology Zones’ Are Being Enacted In Polish Towns [Video]
• The Pandemic Plunged Millions of Latin Americans Into Poverty. Its Youth Are Inheriting the Consequences [Text, Photo]
• No More Saving Face: Empowering Asian-American Women to Seek Mental Health Treatment [Text]
• Police Misconduct Records Secret, Difficult to Access [Text]
• As World’s Deltas Sink, Rising Seas Are Far from Only Culprit [Text]
• 'They Are So Defiant and So Strong’: Photojournalist Paula Bronstein on Documenting Women and Girls in Afghanistan [Photo, Text]
• Cameroon: Large-Scale Logging Forces Indigenous Baka Out of the Forests [Text]

Stories for grades 9 and up:

• How AI-Powered Tech Landed Man In Jail With Scant Evidence [Text, Photo]
• Rich Countries Cornered COVID-19 Vaccine Doses. Four Strategies to Right a ‘Scandalous Inequity’  [Text]
• Indian Affairs Promised To Reform Tribal Jails. We Found Death, Neglect And Disrepair  [Text, Audio, Photo] *Content warning: neglect, substance abuse, attempted suicide
• Inside the Desperate, Dangerous Scramble To Evacuate Kabul as Taliban Seize Control  [Video]
• ‘Social Workers Aren’t Always Available – I Am’: Trans Activists in Tbilisi [Text, Photo] *Content warning: suicide attempt
• Global Demand for Manganese Puts Kayapó Indigenous Land Under Pressure  [Text, Video]
• Inequality’s Deadly Toll: COVID-19, Farmworkers and the Erosion of Public Health  [Text, Photo]
• Pills in the Post: How COVID Reopened the Abortion Wars [Text]
• Floyd Verdict Won’t Remove Blocks to Police Accountability [Text]
• Chased And Jailed: No Rest And Much Danger For Asia’s Young Revolutionaries [Text]
• ‘They Think Workers Are Like Dogs.’ How Pork Plant Execs Sacrificed Safety for Profits. [Text, Illustrations]

Stories in Spanish:

• Una empresa minera amenaza la vida del oso andino en Colombia [Video, Photo, Text]
• Immigrant Women at the Front of COVID-19 Resistance in Buenos Aires [Photo, Text]
• Migrant Farm Workers and the Families Who Get Left Behind [Video]
• Young Woman Fights for Forests and LGBT Rights in the Amazon [Video]
• El arte para protegerse del virus [Photo, Text]
• El vertido de petróleo y la triple pandemia que azota la Amazonia ecuatoriana [Photo, Text]
• Joane: acabar con el plástico y el fuego destructor es posible [Video, Photo, Text]
• Children, the 'Passport' of Migrants to Achieve the American Dream [Text]