For Immediate Release: September 2, 2004
Further information: Ann Scanlon (617) 514-1662
BOSTON - The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced today that its 2005 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest is now open and accepting submissions from U.S. high school students in grades nine through twelve. The deadline for entries is January 8, 2005.
The first-place winner of the annual contest receives a $3,000 cash prize, and the student's nominating teacher receives a John F. Kennedy Public Service Grant in the amount of $500 to be used for school projects that encourage student leadership and civic engagement. The winner and nominating teacher are honored at the Foundation's annual Profile in Courage Award ceremony hosted by Caroline Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy held each May at the Kennedy Library in Boston.
Students may submit an original essay, no longer than 1,000 words in length, about a current elected public official in the United States, who is acting courageously to address a political issue at the local, state, national, or international level or an elected public official in the United States since 1956 who has acted courageously to address a political issue at the local, state, national, or international level. Past submissions have told the stories of courage of a number of leaders, including Illinois Governor George Ryan, U.S. Representative C.L. Otter of Idaho, New York Board of Education President Bernard Confer, U.S. Senator Wayne L. Morse of Oregon, New York State Assemblyman George M. Michaels, U.S. Representative Barbara Lee of California, Alabama Governor Bob Riley, U.S. Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, U.S. Representative Joseph Moakley of Massachusetts, Vermont Governor Howard Dean, and U.S. Representative Bart Stupak of Michigan.
Named for President Kennedy's 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage, which recounts the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers to fight for what they believed in, the Profile in Courage Essay Contest is sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and supported by Fidelity Investments through its Fidelity Cares program.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. The Kennedy Library and Museum and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.