Stop The Hate Scholarship Contest Launches In Northeast Ohio

BEACHWOOD, OH — The annual Stop the Hate: Youth Speak Out scholarship contest will launch on Wednesday, September 11. During a kick-off event, one of last year's finalists will share his award-winning essay and student attendees can enter to win prizes ranging in value from $400 to $40,000.

The kick-off event for this year's program will be held at the Maltz Museum, 2929 Richmond Road, Beachwood. Festivities start at 4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to all middle and high school students, their parents and teachers. Registration is encouraged for the event.

Each year, the Maltz Museum awards $100,000 in scholarships and anti-bias education grants through its Stop the Hate contest. Over its 12 year existence, the program has worked with 30,000 students across a dozen Northeast Ohio counties and more than $1 million has been awarded to students and schools.

Students are invited to reflect on this year's theme, inspired by musical maestro Leonard Bernstein's quote, “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more devotedly than ever before.”

In essays of 500 words or less, students should think about their own life. How have they been impacted by injustice or bigotry? Have they witnessed prejudice first-hand? What did they do in those moments and how will they respond in the future to create justice and positive change in their community?

Submissions from grades 6-10 are due by January 8, 2020. Students in grades 11 and 12 must submit essays by January 20, 2020.