SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 31, 2025, 11:59 p.m.

OVERVIEW

As the capstone experience of the MAXCourage Curriculum, each student will write a personal narrative essay about courage in their own life. The process of brainstorming, writing, and revising with their teacher and classmates will tie together all of the skills they have been practicing throughout the program—reading, writing, discussion, critical thinking, and social-emotional reflection. In February, a panel of judges composed of writers, educators, and other members of the community will read every essay submitted, and nominate at least one from each school for publication, based on the essay writer’s ability to channel their own unique voice in a personal story that demonstrates what courage means to them. Selected essays will be featured in MAXCourage's annual publication of student writing, The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond.

DRIVING QUESTION (PROMPT): How have you experienced courage in your life?

CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS: A successful student author will…

• Write a complete personal narrative. (For more specific narrative writing guidelines, see Common Core State Standards, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3-5.)
• Answer the Driving Question by reflecting on their actions, thoughts, and emotions in a situation when they were called to show courage. Though our student authors’ story topics vary widely, the common theme of courage unites them all. (While we generally encourage students to tell a story about themselves, they may also choose to tell a story about how they grew from witnessing the courage of another person.)
• Channel their own unique writer’s voice to share their story. 
• Length and Format: Essays should be around one page, preferably 550 words or less. There is no minimum word count. We prefer that essays be typed, and please refrain from including any graphics or images.

Read examples in our 2024 book! 

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Beginning in SY22-23, MAXCourage transitioned to a blind, anonymous essay selection process, in order to protect students' privacy and to counteract potential unconscious bias in judging. To ensure anonymized review...

• Attach each student essay as its own file on your Submittable form (rather than submitting a single PDF containing your entire class's essays). The submission form allows you to submit up to four "classrooms" of student work, each of which can hold a maximum of 75 files. 
• If possible, please ensure that each student's name is included in their essay's FILE NAME, but do NOT include any identifying information, such as student names, teacher names, or school names, within the essay document (i.e., no heading at the top of the essay).
• Additionally, please collect the Student Information Form (see below).

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis; while we encourage teachers to run MAXCourage in the fall or winter of the current SY when possible (for timeliness and ease of getting in touch with the selected students), any courage essays written between February 1, 2024 and January 31, 2025 are eligible to be submitted.

Questions? Contact our Program Director, Molly McCafferty, at molly@maxcourage.org for support!