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Win a $10,000 Scholarship for Telling FIRE Why Free Speech Matters!

Why is free speech important at college? Excellent question. High school students, we want your answer.

High school juniors and seniors for the 2014–2015 school year are eligible to participate in FIRE’s Freedom in Academia Essay Contest, with opportunities to win up to $10,000 in college scholarships.

To enter, watch two FIRE videos—“Don’t Cage My Speech! A Student Schools His College” and “Silencing U: Five Outrageous Cases of Campus Censorship”—and write an essay between 800 and 1,000 words answering the following prompt:

Why is free speech important at our nation’s colleges and universities? Using examples from both videos, discuss how censorship of student speech is incompatible with higher education.

The deadline for submissions is January 1, 2015. One $10,000 first prize, one $5,000 second prize, and three $1,000 runner-up prizes will be awarded for the best essays. Four $500 winners will be chosen from the remaining entrants in a drawing. Winners will be announced by January 31, 2015.

For full details, and to make your submission, check out the thefire.org/resources/high-school-network/essay-contest. Happy writing!

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