The Freedom From Religion Foundation has announced its 2025 essay competitions for freethinking students, offering $70,000 (or more) in total scholarships.
Each of these four contests has 10 top prizes: First place — $3,500; second place — $3,000; third place — $2,500; fourth place — $2,000; fifth place — $1,500; sixth place — $1,000; seventh place — $750; eighth place — $500; ninth place — $400; and 10th place — $300. FFRF also offers optional honorable mentions of $200.
The contests cater to students in various age and class ranges.
Students may only enter one FFRF contest annually and may not enter a contest if they have previously won an award in that particular contest.
Requirements: Winners may be asked to send verification of student enrollment. Students will be disqualified if they do not follow instructions, including the word limit and the deadline. Students must submit their essays via the online application and carefully review all contest rules. FFRF monitors for plagiarism. Include links or footnotes for quotes, studies cited, or significant facts relied upon. Entrants must verify that the essay is their original work and that AI was not used in the writing of the text (beyond grammar and spellcheck).
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- David Hudak Memorial black, indigenous and persons of color student essay competition – closed
- William Schulz high school essay contest winners – closed
- Kenneth L. Proulx Memorial essay contest for ongoing college students – closed
- Cornelius Vander Broek graduate/older student essay competition – closed
- Diane and Stephen Uhl Memorial essay competition for law students – closed – see winners below
William J. Schulz Memorial Essay Contest for College-Bound High School Seniors
Topic: High school seniors graduating this spring and attending college in the fall are asked to write on the topic of “To do good is my religion.”
Prompt: Thomas Paine, our “forgotten Founder,” famously wrote that “to do good is my religion.” Write a first-person essay explaining why “doing good” does not depend on religious belief. Explain why you are not religious and what you think morality should be based on instead of God, holy books or dogma. How would you counter common myths that atheists are immoral or “can’t be good without God”? Include examples of how you’ve “done good” to help others in your essay.
Word limit: 350–500.
Deadline: May 1, 2025
Kenneth L. Proulx Memorial Essay Contest for Ongoing College Students
Topic: Currently enrolled college students (up to age 24) may write on: “Why the only afterlife that should concern us is leaving our descendants and planet a secure and pleasant future.”
Prompt: Research and write a first-person essay about how religious mindsets and belief in an unprovable “afterlife” have a negative impact on promoting human welfare and our planet. Show how this religious claim still leads our planet astray in solving the world’s problems, such as climate change, inequality or public health. Briefly explain why you reject religion and belief in an afterlife, and why keeping our focus on this world is best.
Actor and FFRF Lifetime Member Mr. Madison Arnold is generously endowing the $1,000 prize in the ongoing college competition. Madison, who is 89, has given a $30,000 endowment as a living bequest, what he calls a “pre-quest.”
Word limit: 450–650.
Deadline: June 1, 2025
David Hudak Memorial Essay Contest for Freethinking Black, Indigenous and Students of Color
Topic: Black, Indigenous and Students of Color ages 17–21 (college-bound high school seniors to currently enrolled college students) may write on the topic of “How white Christian nationalism endangers my rights.”
Prompt: Research and write a first-person essay about how white Christian nationalism poses a danger to your rights. Choose one particular attack by Christian nationalism on civil liberties, such as against DEI, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, or general civil rights, and explain how white Christian nationalism poses a threat and how that threat impacts you, your family, or others in the BIPOC community. Suggest one or two strategies that you, as a nonreligious individual, could personally do to combat white Christian nationalism and champion secularism and equality.
Eligibility: This contest is offered to support and acknowledge freethinking Students of Color as a minority within a minority. The other FFRF student contests are open to all students.
Word limit: 350–500.
Deadline: June 1, 2025
Cornelius Vander Broek Essay Contest for ‘Graduate/Older’ Students
Topic: Graduate students (through age 30) and “older” undergrads (ages 25–30) are asked to write on the topic: “State/church issues endangered by the Trump administration’s capitulation to Christian nationalism.”
Prompt: Focus on one issue related to state/church separation or secular social policy that you consider to be under threat by Christian nationalist policies in the Trump administration. Issues might include: federal vouchers for religious education at the expense of public schools; contraception and abortion rights; LGBTQ rights; vaccinations and public health; climate change mitigation, etc. Research and explain what’s at stake, show how Christian nationalism is behind this attack, and include some ideas about combating the threat.
Word limit: 550–750.
Deadline: June 1, 2025
2025 winners of the Diane and Stephen Uhl Memorial essay competition for law students
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to announce the three winners of the Diane and Stephen Uhl Memorial Essay Competition for Law Students.
FFRF paid out a total of $9,000 to the winners of this year’s contest.
Law school students were asked to write an essay on this topic: “If you could create a 28th Amendment, what would it be?” The essay prompt the students were given was: “During its most recent terms, the Supreme Court has issued decisions that more or less ignore the Establishment Clause and favor an extreme interpretation of free exercise rights. Propose language for a constitutional amendment that would bring the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses back into balance, and then analyze how your proposed language would alter the result in a recent Supreme Court case.”
For ease of reading, the essays published here do not include the footnotes and citations that were included in the authors’ submissions. The FFRF Legal Team graded and selected the winners.
Winners are listed below and include the law school they are attending and the award amount.
First place: Michael O’Key, UCLA School of Law, $4,000.
Second place: Vasili Sgourakis, Iowa Law School, $3,000.
Third place: Nerma Pasic, University of Houston Law School, $2,000.
All eligible entrants will receive a digital year-long student membership in FFRF.
FFRF appreciates its members who make the effort to contact local high schools, colleges and universities to help publicize its competitions.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With nearly 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
