The scholarship competition has ended. Thank you for participating. We are processing the applications. We will announce the winner of the scholarship prize as well as those who were selected to be showcased on the website February, 2010. Expect an email in February informing you of your status. Thanks again for participating. __________________________________
World health today is at a turning point. Trillions of dollars are going into healthcare and research around the world, but people are only beginning to understand the health and healthcare issues facing the world today. In order to use resources effectively, one must fully understand these problems facing the world today.
The first step in solving problems is discovering them:
The Essay Contest
(Deadline Passed)
WHAT:
Topic
“By putting your writing out to an audience, even a small one, you connect yourself to something larger than yourself…An audience is a community. The published word is a declaration of membership in that community, and also of concern to contribute something meaningful to it.”
--Dr. Atul Gawande
Author of the books Complications and Better
Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School
Participants will submit a written essay along with any relevant photographs about a health or healthcare problem in their community, state, or country. The essay should not be a general discussion of healthcare, but rather, it should focus on one specific issue. IMPORTANT: Please see Advice on Writing the Essay.
Format:
The essay must be at least 400 words in length. Also, please cite any outside sources you use in writing your essay.
Prize:
We will work with sponsors to bring attention to the issues you submit. The best submissions will be uploaded to the World Health Project website and added to the interactive map. The top ten entries will be evaluated by a panel of Harvard University professors, and a winner of the contest will be chosen to receive a $500 prize.
WHEN:
Deadline:
The contest will close November 30th, 2009 at midnight.
WHO:
Eligibility:
People of all ages and backgrounds from all over the world are encouraged to enter the World Health Project Essay Contest. There is no limit on how many essays each person may submit, but one high quality essay is preferred over multiple lower quality essays.
WHY:
The WorldHealthProject.org moves beyond statistics. We know that around the world more than 33 million people live with HIV or AIDS. We know that 25 million people were diagnosed with cancer in the last five years. In some parts of Africa, there are up to 50,000 patients per doctor. These numbers reveal problems, but they also tell us very little. The numbers do not show the people behind these issues. They do not show a health problem's effect on a community, nor do they show the millions of families, friends, and loved ones affected by disease and other health challenges. For every statistic, there are countless stories and perspectives that reveal the impact of health problems throughout the world.
By exploring health issues affecting each of us in our community, we can give a voice to each issue and discover areas in healthcare that can be improved. Our mantra is that one must see a problem from multiple perspectives before one can engineer a solution. By forming a personal connection to a health issue and by becoming an active member of our communities, we can work together to improve health and healthcare.
HOW:
Submission:
In order to submit your essay, please see the Submit page.
Judging Criteria:
Essays will be judged on the following criteria:
- Focus: Examines how well your essay responds to the questions and/or tasks presented. An excellent essay provides specific and thorough responses to all of the questions and/or tasks presented.
- Organization: Looks at the structure of your essay and the strength of your thesis statement. Does the essay have an organized structure? An excellent essay has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. The organization includes an excellent thesis and moves the reader through the text.
- Analysis: Considers how well your arguments are supported. Are the discussion points argued coherently and supported with research? In an excellent essay all of the arguments are strong, well detailed and extremely well supported by convincing and accurate evidence.
- Conclusions and Recommendations: Examines how well conclusions and recommendations are expressed and how closely they follow from the analysis. Conclusions and recommendations should not present new information that is not a part of the analysis: Does the essay provide sound conclusions and recommendations that follow from the analysis? An excellent essay provides a coherent and comprehensive summary based on the analysis. All of the solutions to the problems presented are specific and well thought out.
- Originality: Looks for creativity in writing. Does the writer develop ideas creatively? In an excellent essay, the writer proposes and develops creative ideas, through the selection of cases and/or examples, to present novel analysis and alternatives throughout the entire essay.
- Voice: Considers how well your writing engages the reader. Is the essay compelling and/or thought-provoking? An excellent essay fully captures the reader's attention. The flow of the essay keeps the reader's interest throughout the entire text.
- Style and Mechanics: Examines how well the essay is written in terms of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, as well as word choice and sentence construction. An excellent essay uses standard writing conventions correctly, e.g. grammar, spelling, and punctuation, with no mistakes. There are no errors in word choice and all sentences are well constructed.
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