ReNEW Essay Contest

Scholarship Overview: Essay contest on “Nature, Earth, and their Wonders” for Delaware high school students.
Application Available: February 26, 2025
Deadline Date: March 11, 2025

Scholarship Details:

Delaware Interfaith Power & Light believes in the power of young voices to inspire change. We’re inviting high school aged students from across Delaware to share your personal experiences of how climate change impacts you through RENEW: Reflective Essays on Nature, Earth, and their Wonders.

 

Eligibility Requirements:

  1. Be a Delaware high school student

Application Requirements:

  1.  Registration requested: beginning January 1, 2025
  2. Essay (1500 word max.)

Learn More:

Essay Details:

Choose one of the following 3 essay topics (1500 word max).
1. Youth Climate Action:
Climate change has been referred to as an existential threat to our social, ecological, and economic systems… to the overall health of our planet. How do you envision the unique role that youth/YOU can play in framing this challenge, fostering collaborative action, innovating creative solutions, and/or advocating for your own future here in Delaware. More specifically, how can you raise awareness in your own school among students and teachers?

2. Environmental Injustices:
Everyone is or will be impacted by threats to the health of our natural environment and, most profoundly, by the effects of a warming planet – but some of us more than others. All too often, those most negatively affected by these threats are both least responsible for contributing to them and lacking the resources to adapt to them. How do you define environmental justice? Have you or someone you know suffered the consequences of environmental injustice? What specifically can youth do to redress these injustices in Delaware?

3. Your Individual Connection with Nature:
The web of life is truly that – a profound and intricate connectedness and the delicate balances that exist within a healthy body, a healthy community and the larger ecosystem within which they function. How does your own sense of connectedness inspire and inform your experience of the natural world and your place in it? How does it fuel and guide your motivation to protect it? What actions can you take to help future generations experience that wonder?

Award Amount: $2,000

Award Details:

The ten winning essayists will receive a combined $8,000 in scholarship awards:
Top Prize- $2,000
2nd Prize- $1,500
3rd Prize: $1,000
7 Honorable Mentions- $500 each

Website/URL: https://delawareipl.org/dev/renew-2025

Scholarship Manager Information:

Contact Email: RENEW@delawareipl.org
Additional Contact & Submission Information:

Essays of up to 1,500 words may be submitted to RENEW@delawareipl.org from February 26 to March 10.

Additional Scholarship Information:

An awards ceremony will be held in April, on or around Earth Day.
We expand opportunities to showcase these young visionaries in print and in person each year. In the last two years, winners were invited to appear on the State House and Senate floors and were recognized with standing ovations by the legislators.

Filters:

Areas of Study: Open to All, Environmental Science
Applicant’s Current Education Level: High School Student (9-11), High School Senior
Location Specific: Delaware

 

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