20 September 2010

My Recipe - My Heritage Scholarship/ Essay Contest ($4500 total prize, free to enter)

Post date: 20 September 2010
Deadline: The contest will be closed for additional entries once the first 200 essays are received. Winners will be announced within 8 weeks after the last entry has been submitted.

Fast Recipes is a proud supporter of higher education. The Fast Recipes scholarship competition was established to assist students studying in the US with tuition costs.

Eligibility: Both US citizens and foreign students currently attending a US college, university, or another institution of higher education are eligible to participate. Scholarship winners will be asked to present proof of attendance prior to receiving the scholarship award.

Topic: The essay should explore the place culinary traditions hold in one’s cultural/ethnic identity. The essay should include a favorite recipe that is of great personal significance. Essays may feature actual or fictional events, as long as both are historically accurate. Essays should display good knowledge and familiarity with one’s heritage. You may wish to discuss one or more of the following:

* Childhood culinary experiences
* Culinary traditions as a means of cultural preservation
* Culinary traditions as a testament of environmental and political hardships/influences on a nation or ethnic group
* The effect of emigration on traditional cooking techniques
* The effect of globalism on traditional cooking techniques

Essay Format: The essay should be 300 to 700 words in length. Entries should display good grammar and spelling. Essays should read like a newspaper editorial. Creativity of style and form are encouraged.

Judging Criteria: Well-written essays that comply with contest rules will be published online as anonymous entries. A decision will be made once the first 200 eligible essays are received. FastRecipes.com will retain the copyright to all submitted material. Finalists will be selected based on the decision of our panel of judges and the amount of traffic the published essay page receives.

Once the scholarship closes to further submissions, an announcement will be posted on this page. Those students that are working on essay submissions at the time of the closing will have 10 additional days to submit their essays. This will ensure that all students working on scholarship essays will have the opportunity to compete for the award. Check this page often for updates on the scholarship closing period.

Awards:
First Place: one prize of $1500
Second Place: 2 prizes of $750
Third Place: 3 prizes of $500
Winners will be announced online and will be contacted via phone and email.

Submission Process:
All entries should be submitted via the online submission form.

Please note that each participant may submit only one essay.

Entrants that pass the initial stage of selection, which includes online publication of the submitted essay, will be contacted via email with further instructions.

As part of the verification process, entrants that pass the first selection round will be asked to place a link to Fast Recipes from their student website or blog, which should be hosted by the college/university. The link can be placed on either the homepage or the site menu.

Students that currently run a student webpage or blog are encouraged to participate. Those that do not currently have a webpage or blog should check with their college/univesrity for availability. No other form of verification will be accepted. The link must remain in place until the scholarship closes to further submissions. The page on which the link appears must be part of the student site and available to the public. Sites that require a password or registration to be viewed will not be accepted.

Nondiscrimination Policy:
Fast Recipes is committed to offering equal opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, gender, disability, country of origin or ethnicity, or marital status. The policy applies to all stages of the scholarship process.

More information here.
This blog is no longer updated. Please instead visit Writers For Diversity for new opportunities for women/ LGBT writers and writers of color. Thank you.