Please scroll for information about each of FFRF's five 2022 essay competitions: college-bound high school seniors, ongoing college students, older/grad students, BIPOC students and law school students. Students may enter only one contest per year. Eligibility, deadlines, and links to apply, etc., are all indicated below.
Diane and Stephen Uhl Essay Competition for Law School Students
Essay Prompt, Requirements, Eligibility, and Awards
First Place Prize: $4,000
Second Place Award: $3,000
Third Place Award: $2,000
Optional Honorable Mention(s): $500
This Year's Topic: Write an essay making the strongest argument possible under the current caselaw that a law banning or restricting abortion should be invalidated based on the religious liberty interests of a potential plaintiff.
Prompt: Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, stakeholders have been urgently working to bring what litigation challenges remain to protect and secure reproductive freedom. While FFRF has argued that abortion bans impermissibly codify a particular religious belief—that life begins at conception—in violation of the Establishment Clause, courts have been unwilling to consider that argument as a means for invalidating laws restricting abortion. However, in light of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, there is renewed interest in arguing Free Exercise rights and/or religious rights protected by state versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a means of invalidating such laws and protecting the rights of people who feel their religion compels them to obtain, perform, or facilitate an abortion.
ESSAY GRADING: Essays will be blinded to avoid unintentional bias. A selection of FFRF attorneys will be on the review panel.
ELIGIBILITY: The contest is open to all ongoing law school students attending a North American law school. You remain eligible to enter this contest if you will graduate from law school by spring or summer of 2023. You are not eligible to enter if you will be starting law school for the first time in the fall of 2023. You may not re-enter if FFRF has already awarded you for a law student essay.
WORD LIMIT AND FORMATTING: Essay must be no longer than 1,500 words (not including footnotes), double spaced, standard margins, and font size 11 to 14 point. Include your name and title of your essay on each page. Choose your own title. Pages must be numbered. Indicate word length at end of essay.
DEADLINE: March 15, 2023
William J. Schulz Memorial Essay Contest for College-Bound High School Seniors
Essay Prompt, Requirements, Eligibility, and Awards
First Place Prize: $3,500
Second Place Award: $3,000
Third Place Award: $2,500
Fourth Place Award: $2,000
Fifth Place Award: $1,500
Sixth Place Award: $1,000
Seventh Place Award: $750
Eighth Place Award: $500
Ninth Place Award: $400
Tenth Place Award: $300
Optional Honorable Mention(s): $200
All eligible entrants are offered a full one-year complimentary student membership, which includes a digital version of 10 issues of Freethought Today, FFRF's newspaper (publishes winning student essays), and a complimentary book or premium.
This Year's Topic: "Good without God"
Prompt: Nonbelievers are routinely told we can't be moral if we don't believe in a god. Please write a letter to a religious friend, classmate, teacher, family member, etc., who buys this myth, to explain why you can be "Good without God." Debunk what's wrong with this mindless prejudice against atheists and explain why religiosity is not synonymous with morality. You may wish to use examples. Be sure to define or include what being moral or ethical entails.
Word Limit: 350-500 words
Eligibility: Open to all high school seniors who graduate in spring 2022, who will be attending a North American college or university in fall 2022. If you took a "gap year," please fill out question 9. Note: If you fit this profile and if you are Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color, you may enter this contest, or you may enter FFRF's David Hudak Memorial Contest for Black, Indigenous and Students of Color. However, you may not enter both contests.
Deadline: This essay contest is now closed. Winners will be notified no later than August 2022.
Kenneth L. Proulx Memorial Essay Contest for Ongoing College Students
Essay Prompt, Requirements, Eligibility, and Awards
First Place Prize: $3,500
Second Place Award: $3,000
Third Place Award: $2,500
Fourth Place Award: $2,000
Fifth Place Award: $1,500
Sixth Place Mr. Madison Arnold Award: $1,000
Seventh Place Award: $750
Eighth Place Award: $500
Ninth Place Award: $400
Tenth Place Award: $300
Optional Honorable Mention(s): $200
All eligible entrants are offered a full 1-year complimentary student membership to FFRF, which includes a digital version of 10 issues a year of Freethought Today, FFRF's newspaper (publishes winning student essays), and a complimentary book or premium.
This Year's Topic: In God I Trust - NOT!
Prompt: Please write a personal statement about why you, as a nonbeliever/atheist/humanist, have faith not in a supernatural deity but in yourself. How does trusting in a deity instead of oneself prevent individuals or society from advancing or solving problems? Why would the world be a better place if humankind put faith in itself, instead of a supernatural deity? Give examples.
Word Limit: 450-650 words
Eligibility: Open to all ongoing undergraduate college students up to age 24 already attending a North American college or university. You remain eligible to enter this contest if you will graduate from college by spring or summer of 2022. If you're entering college in Fall 2022 for the first time, please enter FFRF's contest for college-bound high school seniors. If you're an undergraduate student age 25 through 30, please enter FFRF's graduate/"older" student essay contest instead. If you're Black, Indigenous or a Student of Color up to age 21, who is currently enrolled in college, you may enter this contest or the David Hudak Essay Contest for Black, Indigenous and Students of Color, but you may not enter both contests. You may only enter one FFRF Essay competition per year.
Deadline: This essay contest is now closed. Winners will be notified no later than August 2022.
Kenneth L. Proulx (pronounced "Prue"), 1924-2019, was a WWII vet and self-educated man who greatly valued education, and was one of FFRF's most stalwart and generous members. Among his many pithy sayings: “The Mafia and the Catholic Church are the largest crime syndicates on Earth. One of them is illegal.” A frugal worker at an auto plant by day, he taught himself how to invest. His bequest is endowing the college competition.
The $1,000 prize in the ongoing college competition is now being generously endowed starting in 2021 by actor and FFRF Lifetime Member Madison Arnold. (Photo below.)
David Hudak Memorial Essay Contest For Black, Indigenous and Students of Color
Essay Prompt, Requirements, Eligibility, and Awards
First Place Prize: $3,500
Second Place Award: $3,000
Third Place Award: $2,500
Fourth Place Award: $2,000
Fifth Place Award: $1,500
Sixth Place Award: $1,000
Seventh Place Award: $750
Eighth Place Award: $500
Ninth Place Award: $400
Tenth Place Award: $300
Optional Honorable Mention(s): $200
All eligible entrants will be offered a full one-year complimentary student membership, which includes a digital version of 10 issues of Freethought Today, FFRF's newspaper (publishes student essays), and a complimentary book or premium.
This Year's Topic: "How atheism/humanism makes me a better person"
Prompt: Psalm 53:1 preaches: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good." How would you answer this defamation of nontheists? Please write a personal essay that explains why being nonreligious (whether you identify as atheist, agnostic, or humanist) makes you a better, not a worse, person. You may wish to explain why your moral values are improved by your naturalistic views, or cite how nonbelief and nonbelievers have improved the world.
Word Limit: 350-500 words.
Eligibility: Open only to Black, Indigenous and Students of Color ages 17-21, who are either high school seniors graduating in spring 2022 who will be attending a North American college or university in fall 2022, or who are currently enrolled in a North American college or university. If you will be graduating from college in the spring or summer 2022, you remain eligible to enter this contest. This contest is offered to provide support and acknowledgment for freethinking Black, Indigenous and Students of Color, as a minority within a minority. People of Color refers to all racial groups that are not white. Specifically, any person who is not considered white, including African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans and others. FFRF offers other essay contests open to all students in your age group. Students may only enter one FFRF contest annually.
Deadline: This essay contest is now closed. Winners will be notified no later than August 2022.
Cornelius Vander Broek Essay Contest for Graduate/"Older" Students (To Age 30)
Essay Prompt, Requirements, Eligibility, and Awards
First Place Prize: $3,500
Second Place Award: $3,000
Third Place Award: $2,500
Fourth Place Award: $2,000
Fifth Place Award: $1,500
Sixth Place Award: $1,000
Seventh Place Award: $750
Eighth Place Award: $500
Ninth Place Award: $400
Tenth Place Award: $300
Optional Honorable Mention(s): $200
All eligible entrants are offered a full 1-year complimentary student membership to FFRF, which includes a digital version of 10 issues of Freethought Today, FFRF's newspaper (publishes winning student essays), and a complimentary book or premium.
This Year's Topic: "Why religion is not the answer"
Prompt: Please analyze and document at least one major national or worldwide problem in which religion is the problem - not the answer. How does faith or religious dogma get in the way of solving earthly problems? If religion is not the answer, what is? Indicate instead how we should approach the challenge you are analyzing in particular and problem-solving in general.
Word Limit: 550 - 750 words
Eligibility: Open to any graduate students through the age 30, or to undergraduate students ages 25-30 who attend a North American college or university. You remain eligible to enter this contest if you will graduate by spring or summer 2022.
Deadline: This essay contest is now closed. Winners will be notified no later than September 2022.