St. Photios National Shrine is inviting teenagers between 13-19 years old to submit a 1,000-word essay for its 2021 Essay Contest which reflects on the welcoming of immigrants to the United States.
St. Photios will award a $1000 prize to the winner and all participants will receive a certificate.
The shrine commemorates the first Greek settlers to arrive in the New World and celebrates the many immigrants to the U.S. and their experiences. Many of those immigrants came through Ellis Island in New York City and would have viewed the Statue of Liberty upon entering New York Harbor.
At the pedestal of Lady Liberty, a memorial plaque displays the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, with the most famous line reading, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
For essay contest submissions, St. Photios asks that participants discuss why or why not the following lines from “The New Colossus” are still relevant for the nation.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Essay contest details
Participants must be ages 13-19
Maximum word count: 1,000
A single essay will be selected as the winner by a committee and will receive a $1,000 prize. All participants will receive a certificate.
All essays become property of St. Photios Shrine and can be used for various publicity purposes, always with the byline of the author.
The St. Photios National Shrine 2021 Essay Contest is made possible by the generosity of The Kathie D’Anna Charitable Trust.
Essay deadline
Submit essays NO LATER THAN December 16, 2021 via email to: Polexeni Maouris Hillier, Executive Director of St. Photios National Shrine at [email protected].
For more information, visit the shrine’s website.
Winner will be announced January 9, 2022.
