global essay john locke

Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize, registrations are now open all essayists must register  here  before friday 31 may, 2024.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by researchers at four British universities, for each 15-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by around 35% for a man but decreases by around 58% for a woman. Why?

In the original version of this question we misstated a statistic. This was caused by reproducing an error that appeared in several media summaries of the study. We are grateful to one of our contestants, Xinyi Zhang, who helped us to see (with humility and courtesy) why we should take more care to check our sources. We corrected the text on 4 April. Happily, the correction does not in any way alter the thrust of the question.

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition. To register, click here .  

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

Q. I missed the registration deadline. May I still register or submit an essay?

A. No. Only candidates who registered before 31 May will be able to submit an essay. 

Q. Are footnote s, endnotes, a bibliography or references counted towards the word limit?

A. No. Only the body of the essay is counted. 

Q. Are in-text citations counted towards the word limit? ​

A. If you are using an in-text based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.

Q. Is it necessary to include foo tnotes or endnotes in an essay? ​

A. You  may not  include footnotes, but you may include in-text citations or endnotes. You should give your sources of any factual claims you make, and you should ackn owledge any other authors on whom you rely.​

Q. I am interested in a question that seems ambiguous. How should I interpret it?

A. You may interpret a question as you deem appropriate, clarifying your interpretation if necessary. Having done so, you must answer the question as directly as possible.

Q. How strict are  the age eligibility criteria?

A. Only students whose nineteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. In the case of the Junior category, only students whose fifteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. 

Q. May I submit more than one essay?

A. Yes, you may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.

Q. If I am eligible to compete in the Junior category, may I also (or instead) compete in another category?

A. Yes, you may.

Q. May I team up with someone else to write an essay?  

A. No. Each submitted essay must be entirely the work of a single individual.

Q. May I use AI, such as ChatGPT or the like, in writing my essay?

A. All essays will be checked for the use of AI. If we find that any content is generated by AI, your essay will be disqualified. We will also ask you, upon submission of your essay, whether you used AI for  any  purpose related to the writing of your essay, and if so, you will be required to provide details. In that case, if, in our judgement, you have not provided full and accurate details of your use of AI, your essay will be disqualified. 

Since any use of AI (that does not result in disqualification) can only negatively affect our assessment of your work relative to that of work that is done without using AI, your safest course of action is simply not to use it at all. If, however, you choose to use it for any purpose, we reserve the right to make relevant judgements on a case-by-case basis and we will not enter into any correspondence. 

Q. May I have someone else edit, or otherwise help me with, my essay?

A. You may of course discuss your essay with others, and it is perfectly acceptable for them to offer general advice and point out errors or weaknesses in your writing or content, leaving you to address them.

However, no part of your essay may be written by anyone else. This means that you must edit your own work and that while a proofreader may point out errors, you as the essayist must be the one to correct them. 

Q. Do I have to attend the awards ceremony to win a prize? ​

A. Nobody is required to attend the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London. But if we invite you to London it is because your essay was good enough - in the opinion of the First Round judges - to be at least a contender for First, Second or Third Prize. Normally the Second Round judges will agree that the short-listed essays are worth at least a commendation.

Q. Is there an entry fee?

A. No. There is no charge to enter our global essay competition unless you submit your essay after the normal deadline, in which case there is a fee of 20.00 USD .

Q. Can I receive a certificate for my participation in your essay competition if I wasn't shortlisted? 

A. No. Certificates are awarded only for shortlisted essays. Short-listed contestants who attend the award ceremony in London will receive a paper certificate. If you cannot travel to London, you will be able to download your eCertificate.

Q. Can I receive feedba ck on my essay? 

A. We would love to be able to give individual feedback on essays but, unfortunately, we receive too many entries to be able to comment on particular essays.

Q. The deadline for publishing the names of short-listed essayists has passed but I did not receive an email to tell me whether I was short-listed.

A. Log into your account and check "Shortlist Status" for (each of) your essay(s).

Q. Why isn't the awards ceremony in Oxford this year?

A. Last year, many shortlisted finalists who applied to join our invitation-only academic conference missed the opportunity because of capacity constraints at Oxford's largest venues. This year, the conference will be held in central London and the gala awards dinner will take place in an iconic London ballroom. 

TECHNICAL FAQ s

Q. The system will not accept my essay. I have checked the filename and it has the correct format. What should I do?  

A. You have almost certainly added a space before or after one of your names in your profile. Edit it accordingly and try to submit again.

Q. The profile page shows my birth date to be wrong by a day, even after I edit it. What should I do?

A. Ignore it. The date that you typed has been correctly input to our database. ​ ​

Q. How can I be sure that my registration for the essay competition was successful? Will I receive a confirmation email?

A. You will not receive a confirmation email. Rather, you can at any time log in to the account that you created and see that your registration details are present and correct.

TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR SUBMISSION

If you are unable to submit your essay to the John Locke Institute’s global essay competition, your problem is almost certainly one of the following.

If so, please proceed as indicated.

1) PROBLEM: I receive the ‘registrations are now closed’ message when I enter my email and verification code. SOLUTION. You did not register for the essay competition and create your account. If you think you did, you probably only provided us with your email to receive updates from us about the competition or otherwise. You may not enter the competition this year.

2) PROBLEM I do not receive a login code after I enter my email to enter my account. SOLUTION. Enter your email address again, checking that you do so correctly. If this fails, restart your browser using an incognito window; clear your cache, and try again. Wait for a few minutes for the code. If this still fails, restart your machine and try one more time. If this still fails, send an email to [email protected] with “No verification code – [your name]” in the subject line.

SUBMITTING AN ESSAY

3) PROBLEM: The filename of my essay is in the correct format but it is rejected. SOLUTION: Use “Edit Profile” to check that you did not add a space before or after either of your names. If you did, delete it. Whether you did or did not, try again to submit your essay. If submission fails again, email [email protected] with “Filename format – [your name]” in the subject line.

4) PROBLEM: When trying to view my submitted essay, a .txt file is downloaded – not the .pdf file that I submitted. SOLUTION: Delete the essay. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “File extension problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

5) PROBLEM: When I try to submit, the submission form just reloads without giving me an error message. SOLUTION. Log out of your account. Open a new browser; clear the cache; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Submission form problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

6) PROBLEM: I receive an “Unexpected Error” when trying to submit. SOLUTION. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If this resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Unexpected error – [your name]” in thesubject line. Your email must tell us e xactly where in the submission process you received this error.

7) PROBLEM: I have a problem with submitting and it is not addressed above on this list. SOLUTION: Restart your machine. Clear your browser’s cache. Try to submit again. If this fails, email [email protected] with “Unlisted problem – [your name]” in the subject line. Your email must tell us exactly the nature of your problem with relevant screen caps.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU EMAIL US.

Do not email us before you have tried the specified solutions to your problem.

Do not email us more than once about a single problem. We will respond to your email within 72 hours. Only if you have not heard from us in that time may you contact us again to ask for an update.

If you email us regarding a problem, you must include relevant screen-shots and information on both your operating system and your browser. You must also declare that you have tried the solutions presented above and had a good connection to the internet when you did so.

If you have tried the relevant solution to your problem outlined above, have emailed us, and are still unable to submit before the 30 June deadline on account of any fault of the John Locke Institute or our systems, please do not worry: we will have a way to accept your essay in that case. However, if there is no fault on our side, we will not accept your essay if it is not submitted on time – whatever your reason: we will not make exceptions for IT issues for which we are not responsible.

We reserve the right to disqualify the entries of essayists who do not follow all provided instructions, including those concerning technical matters.

All essayists must register here by 11:59PM BST on 31 May 2024.

Enter your email address below to:

Register (if this is your first time here)

or Login (if you have already registered).

Everything You Need to Know About John Locke Essay Competition in 2024

Indigo Research Team

John Locke Essay Competition is one of the most popular and international essay competitions for high school students. Those who were first and honorable mention in this competition went on to attend Princeton, Oxford, and other Ivy League universities.

Not to mention placing in the top three of the competition, even receiving an honorable mention is a fantastic addition to your admissions resume and is viewed by admissions officers from Harvard to Stanford and beyond as one of the most distinguished accomplishments a high school student can accomplish! Keep reading this blog to know more about this essay competition.

What is the John Locke Essay Competition?

The John Locke Writing Competition is hosted by the non-profit John Locke Institute, a university with offices in Oxford, UK. Professors from top colleges like Oxford, Princeton, Brown, and Buckingham University work at the John Locke Institute.

The John Locke Global Essay Competition Institute helps young people to develop the qualities of great writers, such as critical analysis, persuasiveness, independence of thought, and range of knowledge. Students are allowed to investigate a wide range of topics that fall outside the scope of their coursework.

Why should you participate?

Participating in the John Locke Competition 2024 is a great idea if you want to improve your academic performance and stand out on your college application. Securing a prize or simply making the shortlist might attract the attention of elite university admission panels, demonstrating your commitment to and proficiency in the classroom.

Along with offering participants a great opportunity to interact with current global concerns through engaging themes, the competition also helps participants hone their critical thinking skills by having them write insightful, well-researched essays.

Essay topics 

Students must submit an argumentative essay that is at most 2000 words long. The main subjects of the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 include philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, religion, and law.

The following are the topics for the 2024 John Locke Essay Contest.

• Philosophy 

Tips for Students 

• Essays can only deal with one of the topics in the subject category you have selected, and they should be at most 2000 words (not including copyright declarations, examples, tables of data, or footnotes).
• If you follow an in-text referencing style like APA, the word count includes your in-text citations.
• You can submit an unlimited number of essays in all categories. (Considering how difficult it may be to produce a single high-quality submission, we recommend going for just one.)

Pay close attention to the structure and flow of your essay in the John Locke Essay Competition 2024. If justifications and logic are your primary weapons in this contest, then your writing's fluidity is your weapon. What is meant by a smooth flow? It suggests the reader must understand your line of argument easily. This is especially true for articles that explore otherworldly topics.

Important dates

• Registration starts on April 1, 2024.
• The deadline for registration is May 31, 2024.
• Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2024.
• Deadline for late entries: July 10, 2024.
• Essayists on the shortlist will be notified on July 31, 2024.
• Academic conference, September 20, 22nd, 2024.
• Dinner for awards: September 21, 2024.

Read the questions and make a connection to John Locke's ideas.

You can present a sophisticated and perceptive analysis that thoroughly comprehends both the essay prompt and Locke's thoughts by linking the philosopher's ideas and the essay prompt. This method demonstrates your understanding of the subject matter and helps you interact critically with it. Along with do consider John Locke's most famous work to increase the chance of success.

Outline Thoroughly

Before diving into writing, create a clear outline outlining your main arguments and supporting evidence. This helps maintain focus and coherence throughout the essay, ensuring each paragraph contributes meaningfully to your overall argument.

Clear arguments 

Once you've determined your position on the matter, it's essential to support it with solid information from reliable sources and logical reasoning. Scholarly articles, books, and academic journals are just a few of the resources available to students to help them gather pertinent data and craft well-reasoned arguments. Furthermore, ensure that your essay has a compelling thesis statement and that the organization and ideas are presented in a way that makes it easy for the reader to follow. Also, reading John Locke's essay competition’s past essays can help you to understand complete assignments.

Revise Strategically

Take breaks between writing and revising to gain a fresh perspective. When revising, pay attention to sentence structure, grammar, and coherence. Ensure each paragraph flows logically into the next, and that your ideas are expressed with clarity and precision.

Seek Feedback

Share your essay with peers, teachers, or writing groups for constructive criticism. Consider their feedback thoughtfully and use it to refine your work. Embrace constructive criticism as an opportunity for growth, allowing you to identify blind spots and strengthen your writing skills over time

Common Questions Related to the John Locke Essay Competition

Which skills of students is the john locke essay competition assessing.

• Fundamental understanding of concepts and theories in economics, politics, history, psychology, theology, or law
• Proficiency at writing argumentative essays and mastery of basic writing frameworks
• Logical analysis methods, independent thought, and written persuasive

What are the awards for the John Locke Essay Competition?

• As part of their award, each topic category winner will receive a scholarship worth $2000 (US dollars) for any program offered by the John Locke Institute.
• A scholarship worth $10,000 (USD) to attend one or more of our summer schools and gap year programs will be awarded to the writer of the overall winning essay.
• The Institute will make the pieces available online.
• Networking opportunities with judges and other academics at the John Locke Institute.

This essay competition is one of the best ways to bring out the essence of youth, freedom of expression, and a student’s critical thinking ability. Thus, we encourage high school students to take part in it and convey their enthusiasm and revolutionary thoughts to shape the world.

Joining the John Locke Essay Competition 2024 requires some amazing ideas and clever solutions. Indigo Research is the perfect spot for curious high schoolers who want to explore more and turn their bright ideas into reality. We connect you with top mentors to dive into research projects you're passionate about.

Think about mixing the challenge and smart thinking from the Locke competition with Indigo Research's supportive research environment. This combo can really make your college applications shine and show off your unique talents.

Upcoming Summer 2024 Application Deadline is April 14, 2024.  

Click here to apply.

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• 12 min read

The Ultimate Guide to the John Locke Essay Competition

Humanities and social sciences students often lack the opportunities to compete at the global level and demonstrate their expertise. Competitions like ISEF, Science Talent Search, and MIT Think are generally reserved for students in fields like biology, physics, and chemistry.

At Lumiere, many of our talented non-STEM students, who have a flair for writing are looking for ways to flex their skills. In this piece, we’ll go over one such competition - the John Locke Essay Competition. If you’re interested in learning more about how we guide students to win essay contests like this, check out our main page .

What is the John Locke Essay Competition?

The essay competition is one of the various programs conducted by the John Locke Institute (JLI) every year apart from their summer and gap year courses. To understand the philosophy behind this competition, it’ll help if we take a quick detour to know more about the institute that conducts it.

Founded in 2011, JLI is an educational organization that runs summer and gap year courses in the humanities and social sciences for high school students. These courses are primarily taught by academics from Oxford and Princeton along with some other universities. The organization was founded by Martin Cox. Our Lumiere founder, Stephen, has met Martin and had a very positive experience. Martin clearly cares about academic rigor.

The institute's core belief is that the ability to evaluate the merit of information and develop articulate sound judgments is more important than merely consuming information. The essay competition is an extension of the institute - pushing students to reason through complex questions in seven subject areas namely Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology, and Law​.

The organization also seems to have a strong record of admissions of alumni to the top colleges in the US and UK. For instance, between 2011 and 2022, over half of John Locke alumni have gone on to one of eight colleges: Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.

How prestigious is the John Locke Contest?

The John Locke Contest is a rigorous and selective writing competition in the social sciences and humanities. While it is not as selective as the Concord Review and has a much broader range of students who can receive prizes, it is still considered a highly competitive program.

Winning a John Locke essay contest will have clear benefits for you in your application process to universities and would reflect well on your application. On the other hand, a shortlist or a commendation might not have a huge impact given that it is awarded to many students (more on this later).

What is the eligibility for the contest?

Students, of any country, who are 18 years old or younger before the date of submission can submit. They also have a junior category for students who are fourteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline.

Who SHOULD consider this competition?

We recommend this competition for students who are interested in social sciences and humanities, in particular philosophy, politics, and economics. It is also a good fit for students who enjoy writing, want to dive deep into critical reasoning, and have some flair in their writing approach (more on that below).

While STEM students can of course compete, they will have to approach the topics through a social science lens. For example, in 2021, one of the prompts in the division of philosophy was, ‘Are there subjects about which we should not even ask questions?’ Here, students of biology can comfortably write about topics revolving around cloning, gene alteration, etc, however, they will have to make sure that they are able to ground this in the theoretical background of scientific ethics and ethical philosophy in general.

Additional logistics

Each essay should address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography, or authorship declaration).

If you are using an in-text-based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.

You can submit as many essays as you want in any and all categories. (We recommend aiming for only one given how time-consuming it can be to come up with a single good-quality submission)

Important dates

Prompts for the 2023 competition will be released in January 2023. Your submission will be due around 6 months later in June. Shortlisted candidates will be notified in mid-July which will be followed by the final award ceremony in September.

How much does it cost to take part?

What do you win?

A scholarship that will offset the cost of attending a course at the JLI. The amount will vary between $2000 and $10,000 based on whether you are a grand prize winner (best essay across all categories) or a subject category winner. (JLI programs are steeply-priced and even getting a prize in your category would not cover the entire cost of your program. While the website does not mention the cost of the upcoming summer program, a different website mentions it to be 3,000 GBP or 3600 USD)

If you were shortlisted, most probably, you will also receive a commendation certificate and an invitation to attend an academic ceremony at Oxford. However, even here, you will have to foot the bill for attending the conference, which can be a significant one if you are an international student.

How do you submit your entry?

You submit your entry through the website portal that will show up once the prompts for the next competition are up in January! You have to submit your essay in pdf format where the title of the pdf attachment should read SURNAME, First Name, Category, and Question Number (e.g. POPHAM, Alexander, Psychology, Q2).

What are the essay prompts like?

We have three insights here.

Firstly, true to the spirit of the enlightenment thinker it is named after, most of the prompts have a philosophical bent and cover ethical, social, and political themes. In line with JLI’s general philosophy, they force you to think hard and deeply about the topics they cover. Consider a few examples to understand this better:

“Are you more moral than most people you know? How do you know? Should you strive to be more moral? Why or why not?” - Philosophy, 2021

“What are the most important economic effects - good and bad - of forced redistribution? How should this inform government policy?” - Economics, 2020

“Why did the Jesus of Nazareth reserve his strongest condemnation for the self-righteous?” - Theology, 2021

“Should we judge those from the past by the standards of today? How will historians in the future judge us?” - History, 2021

Secondly, at Lumiere, our analysis is that most of these prompts are ‘deceptively rigorous’ because the complexity of the topic reveals itself gradually. The topics do not give you a lot to work with and it is only when you delve deeper into one that you realize the extent to which you need to research/read more. In some of the topics, you are compelled to define the limits of the prompt yourself and in turn, the scope of your essay. This can be a challenging exercise. Allow me to illustrate this with an example of the 2019 philosophy prompt.

“Aristotelian virtue ethics achieved something of a resurgence in the twentieth century. Was this progress or retrogression?”

Here you are supposed to develop your own method for determining what exactly constitutes progress in ethical thought. This in turn involves familiarizing yourself with existing benchmarks of measurement and developing your own method if required. This is a significant intellectual exercise.

Finally, a lot of the topics are on issues of contemporary relevance and especially on issues that are contentious . For instance, in 2019, one of the prompts for economics was about the benefits and costs of immigration whereas the 2020 essay prompt for theology was about whether Islam is a religion of peace . As we explain later, your ‘opinion’ here can be as ‘outrageous’ as you want it to be as long as you are able to back it up with reasonable arguments. Remember, the JLI website clearly declares itself to be, ‘ not a safe space, but a courteous one ’.

How competitive is the JLI Essay Competition?

In 2021, the competition received 4000 entries from 101 countries. Given that there is only one prize winner from each category, this makes this a very competitive opportunity. However, because categories have a different number of applicants, some categories are more competitive than others. One strategy to win could be to focus on fields with fewer submissions like Theology.

There are also a relatively significant number of students who receive commendations called “high commendation.” In the psychology field, for example, about 80 students received a commendation in 2022. At the same time, keep in mind that the number of students shortlisted and invited to Oxford for an academic conference is fairly high and varies by subject. For instance, Theology had around 50 people shortlisted in 2021 whereas Economics had 238 . We, at Lumiere, estimate that approximately 10% of entries of each category make it to the shortlisting stage.

How will your essay be judged?

The essays will be judged on your understanding of the discipline, quality of argumentation and evidence, and writing style. Let’s look at excerpts from various winning essays to see what this looks like in practice.

Level of knowledge and understanding of the relevant material: Differentiating your essay from casual musing requires you to demonstrate knowledge of your discipline. One way to do that is by establishing familiarity with relevant literature and integrating it well into their essay. The winning essay of the 2020 Psychology Prize is a good example of how to do this: “People not only interpret facts in a self-serving way when it comes to their health and well-being; research also demonstrates that we engage in motivated reasoning if the facts challenge our personal beliefs, and essentially, our moral valuation and present understanding of the world. For example, Ditto and Liu showed a link between people’s assessment of facts and their moral convictions” By talking about motivated reasoning in the broader literature, the author can show they are well-versed in the important developments in the field.

Competent use of evidence: In your essay, there are different ways to use evidence effectively. One such way involves backing your argument with results from previous studies . The 2020 Third Place essay in economics shows us what this looks like in practice: “Moreover, this can even be extended to PTSD, where an investigation carried out by Italian doctor G. P. Fichera, led to the conclusion that 13% of the sampling units were likely to have this condition. Initiating economic analysis here, this illustrates that the cost of embarking on this unlawful activity, given the monumental repercussions if caught, is not equal to the costs to society...” The study by G.P. Fichera is used to strengthen the author’s claim on the social costs of crime and give it more weight.

Structure, writing style, and persuasive force: A good argument that is persuasive rarely involves merely backing your claim with good evidence and reasoning. Delivering it in an impactful way is also very important. Let’s see how the winner of the 2020 Law Prize does this: “Slavery still exists, but now it applies to women and its name in prostitution”, wrote Victor Hugo in Les Misérables. Hugo’s portrayal of Fantine under the archetype of a fallen woman forced into prostitution by the most unfortunate of circumstances cannot be more jarringly different from the empowerment-seeking sex workers seen today, highlighting the wide-ranging nuances associated with commercial sex and its implications on the women in the trade. Yet, would Hugo have supported a law prohibiting the selling of sex for the protection of Fantine’s rights?” The use of Victor Hugo in the first line of the essay gives it a literary flair and enhances the impact of the delivery of the argument. Similarly, the rhetorical question, in the end, adds to the literary dimension of the argument. Weaving literary and argumentative skills in a single essay is commendable and something that the institute also recognizes.

Quality of argumentation: Finally, the quality of your argument depends on capturing the various elements mentioned above seamlessly . The third place in theology (2020) does this elegantly while describing bin-Laden’s faulty and selective use of religious verses to commit violence: “He engages in the decontextualization and truncation of Qur'anic verses to manipulate and convince, which dissociates the fatwas from bonafide Islam. For example, in his 1996 fatwa, he quotes the Sword verse but deliberately omits the aforementioned half of the Ayat that calls for mercy. bin-Laden’s intention is not interpretive veracity, but the indoctrination of his followers.” The author’s claim is that bin-Laden lacks religious integrity and thus should not be taken seriously, especially given the content of his messages. To strengthen his argument, he uses actual incidents to dissect this display of faulty reasoning.

These excerpts are great examples of the kind of work you should keep in mind when writing your own draft.

6 Winning Tips from Lumiere

Focus on your essay structure and flow: If logic and argumentation are your guns in this competition, a smooth flow is your bullet. What does a smooth flow mean? It means that the reader should be able to follow your chain of reasoning with ease. This is especially true for essays that explore abstract themes. Let’s see this in detail with the example of a winning philosophy essay. “However, if society were the moral standard, an individual is subjected to circumstantial moral luck concerning whether the rules of the society are good or evil (e.g., 2019 Geneva vs. 1939 Munich). On the other hand, contracts cannot be the standard because people are ignorant of their being under a moral contractual obligation, when, unlike law, it is impossible to be under a contract without being aware. Thus, given the shortcomings of other alternatives, human virtue is the ideal moral norm.” To establish human virtue as the ideal norm, the author points out limitations in society and contracts, leaving out human virtue as the ideal one. Even if you are not familiar with philosophy, you might still be able to follow the reasoning here. This is a great example of the kind of clarity and logical coherence that you should strive for.

Ground your arguments in a solid theoretical framework : Your essay requires you to have well-developed arguments. However, these arguments need to be grounded in academic theory to give them substance and differentiate them from casual opinions. Let me illustrate this with an example of the essay that won second place in the politics category in 2020. “Normatively, the moral authority of governments can be justified on a purely associative basis: citizens have an inherent obligation to obey the state they were born into. As Dworkin argued, “Political association, like family or friendship and other forms of association more local and intimate, is itself pregnant of obligation” (Dworkin). Similar to a family unit where children owe duties to their parents by virtue of being born into that family regardless of their consent, citizens acquire obligations to obey political authority by virtue of being born into a state.” Here, the author is trying to make a point about the nature of political obligation. However, the core of his argument is not the strength of his own reasoning, but the ability to back his reasoning with prior literature. By quoting Dworkin, he includes important scholars of western political thought to give more weight to his arguments. It also displays thorough research on the part of the author to acquire the necessary intellectual tools to write this paper.

The methodology is more important than the conclusion: The 2020 history winners came to opposite conclusions in their essays on whether a strong state hampers or encourages economic growth. While one of them argued that political strength hinders growth when compared to laissez-faire, the other argues that the state is a prerequisite for economic growth . This reflects JLI’s commitment to your reasoning and substantiation instead of the ultimate opinion. The lesson: Don’t be afraid to be bold! Just make sure you are able to back it up.

Establish your framework well: A paragraph (or two) that is able to succinctly describe your methodology, core arguments, and the reasoning behind them displays academic sophistication. A case in point is the introduction of 2019’s Philosophy winner: “To answer the question, we need to construct a method that measures progress in philosophy. I seek to achieve this by asserting that, in philosophy, a certain degree of falsification is achievable. Utilizing philosophical inquiry and thought experiments, we can rationally assess the logical validity of theories and assign “true” and “false” status to philosophical thoughts. With this in mind, I propose to employ the fourth process of the Popperian model of progress…Utilizing these two conditions, I contend that Aristotelian virtue ethics was progress from Kantian ethics and utilitarianism.” Having a framework like this early on gives you a blueprint for what is in the essay and makes it easier for the reader to follow the reasoning. It also helps you as a writer since distilling down your core argument into a paragraph ensures that the first principles of your essay are well established.

Read essays of previous winners: Do this and you will start seeing some patterns in the winning essays. In economics, this might be the ability to present a multidimensional argument and substantiating it with data-backed research. In theology, this might be your critical analysis of religious texts .

Find a mentor: Philosophical logic and argumentation are rarely taught at the high school level. Guidance from an external mentor can fill this academic void by pointing out logical inconsistencies in your arguments and giving critical feedback on your essay. Another important benefit of having a mentor is that it will help you in understanding the heavy literature that is often a key part of the writing/research process in this competition. As we have already seen above, having a strong theoretical framework is crucial in this competition. A mentor can make this process smoother.

Lumiere Research Scholar Program

If you’re looking for a mentor to do an essay contest like John Locke or want to build your own independent research paper, then consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program . Last year over 2100 students applied for about 500 spots in the program. You can find the application form here.

You can see our admission results here for our students.

Manas is a publication strategy associate at Lumiere Education. He studied public policy and interactive media at NYU and has experience in education consulting.

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A Complete Guide To ✨The John Locke Essay Competition✨

Join our exclusive info session if want to find out more about the john locke competition and what it takes to enter an award-winning essay. session 1: 5 pm (gmt-0) feb 24th session 2: 3 am (gmt-0) feb 25th, are you ready to make a mark in the prestigious john locke essay competition.

Join us for an exclusive information session that unveils the secrets to success in this renowned competition.

During this enlightening info session, you will:

📚 Discover what the John Locke Essay Competition is all about and why it's a golden opportunity for aspiring writers.

🎓 Uncover the winning strategies and techniques to ace the competition and stand out from the crowd.

🌐 Engage with experts who have excelled in the competition and get valuable tips on crafting an impressive essay.

🤝 Q&A…and so much more!

The John Locke Essay Competition is your gateway to excellence, and we invite you to a special information session to guide you on the path to success!

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Meet the Speaker

Benjamin Goldstein

• A Fulbright Scholar, a graduate of Oxford, Columbia, and Cambridge
• A former head coach for the Concord Review history journal
• Has personally overseen essay submissions by many past John Locke winners
• Extensively working with hundreds of students over the past five years tutoring students in historical research and writing skills

What is the John Locke Essay Competition?

The John Locke essay competition is a famous, worldwide essay competition. Winners and honorably mentioned individuals in this competition have gone on to Oxford, Princeton, and other Ivy Leagues.

Even getting an honorable mention, not to mention achieving a top 3 spot in the competition, is an incredible addition to your admissions profile, recognized by admissions officers from Harvard to Stanford and beyond as one of the most prestigious achievements possible for a high school student!

Crimson Students’ Success

Every year we celebrate our students’ outstanding results in this highly competitive essay competition. Working with their dedicated mentors, they submit work that has already been shortlisted with numerous student recipients of the major prize(s).

From Law to Economics to History, our students have been shortlisted across numerous categories with a special mention for junior prize winners (Crimson Rise students!) from across the US, Asia, and all over the world.

In 2023, a 35% Global Shortlist Rate in comparison to the global average of < 10% was achieved after taking our most recent John Locke Essay Competition Masterclass!

Ready to join?

Sharpening your writing skills and boosting your chances of success in the john locke essay competition.

John Locke Global Essay Competition (Standard Prize & Junior Prize)

Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by senior academics from the University of Oxford. The judges will choose their favourite essay from each subject category and an overall 'best essay' across seven subjects: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law.

The Institute awards two separate prizes:

• For the standard prize a prize is awarded for the best essay in each category.
• For the Junior Prize there is only one winner.

The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior Prize, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute program and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. The prize-giving ceremony takes place in Oxford, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome, subject to capacity constraints.

​

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or gap year courses.

Location(s)

• Entries are due no later than June 30

Cost/Compensation

Eligibility requirements.

• Students must be 18 or younger
• Entries are open to candidates from every country

Application or Entry Requirements

• Registration is required, which one can do  here.
• Essays should address only one of the questions in a chosen subject category but students may submit more than one essay so long as they are in different categories.
• Essays must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography, or authorship declaration). 
• Essays should be submitted in pdf format, through the website. 

Notifications of Decisions

• Short-listed contestants announced: July
• Junior Prize announced: August
• Economics Prize announced: September
• Politics Prize and Law Prize announced: September
• Philosophy Prize and Theology Prize announced: September
• Psychology Prize announced: October

Financial Aid Details

Other dates to keep in mind.

• Essay questions released: February

Have other questions?

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis, and persuasive style. We work to embolden the best and brightest students to become more academically ambitious and more intellectually adventurous. Through our various programs - residential courses, revision seminars, essay competitions, and special events - we inspire students to aim high and we equip them with the skills they need in order to achieve their goals.

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Global Essay Competition 2021- John Locke Institute

• Deadline June 30, 2021
• Region Online

Submissions are now open for 2021 Global Essay Competition organised by The John Locke Institute! Apply now!

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. The Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum. Entering an essay in the competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of the essay prizes are judged by senior academics from the University of Oxford. The judges will choose their favourite essay from each subject category and an overall ‘best essay’ across seven subjects: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law.

• Q1. Are there some subjects about which we should not even ask questions?
• Q2. What is slavery? Is jury duty? Is conscription? Is income tax?
• Q3. Are you more moral than most people you know? How do you know? Should you strive to be more moral? Why or why not?
• Q1. Discrimination on the basis of race is widely condemned, but on the basis of nationality it is widely accepted. Is it not odd that you may not discriminate against me for where my great-great-grandparents were born, but you may discriminate against me for where my parents were born?
• Q2. Should the John Locke Institute change its name?
• Q3. Do we need Greta?

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• Q1. How would the education sector change if governments were no longer involved?
• Q2. There is considerable excess demand for undergraduate places at Oxford. The admissions process rations supply by favouring cleverer students at the expense of others. Is this fair? Does it exacerbate inequality? What is the University’s optimal response to this scarcity?
• Q3. Should we abolish the minimum wage?
• Q1. Should we judge those from the past by the standards of today? How will historians in the future judge us?
• Q2. Has the ‘construct of gender’ been more beneficial or more harmful to humanity throughout history?
• Q3. ‘More history has happened in Oxford, per square foot, than any other place in the world.’ Discuss.
• Q1. Do we do everything we do to maximise own utility?
• Q2. ‘The function of religions and cults, including the political or ideological ones, is to short-circuit the normal ‘common sense’ process of doubt, investigation, further doubt, further investigation… a belief system only requires a rule book (sacred scripture, Das Kapital, or whatever) and a good memory.’ Is this true? Does it matter?
• Q3. Who is responsible for my mental health?
• Q1. Is Christianity a religion of peace?
• Q2. Why did Jesus of Nazareth reserve his strongest condemnation for the self-righteous?
• Q3. Did God create coronavirus?
• Q1. Should ‘innocent until proven guilty’ apply not only to courts of law, but also to public censure?
• Q2. To what extent does a codified constitution help or hinder liberty?
• Q3. When should force of law prevent a transaction, entered into freely between two competent, consenting adults?
• Q1. Should we raise the voting age to 25?
• Q3. Is Oxford overrated?
• Q4. Just because you’re a millionaire doesn’t mean you should get better healthcare than the rest of us, does it?
• Q5. What should we do to improve the lives of poor people?
• Q6. Have things improved?
• Q7. Before a certain time almost everybody would have held some belief which we now find repugnant. Does this mean we cannot admire or commemorate the people who helped to shape the modern world?
• Q8. Should the law ever prevent people from freely making self-harming decisions? If so, what should and shouldn’t be forbidden – and according to which principles?

​Criteria: Essays will be judged on the level of knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, the quality of argumentation, the structure, writing style and persuasive force. Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is-

• A scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme
• The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of the summer schools and/or gap year courses
• The essays will be published on the Institute’s website
• The prize-giving ceremony will take place in Oxford, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome, subject to capacity constraints

The judges’ decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

Eligibilities

• Entry is open to students from any country and any school.
• Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline, 30 June 2021.
• Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline.

Application Process

• Each essay should address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).
• Please upload your essay as a pdf file. The title of the pdf attachment should read SURNAME, First Name (e.g. POPHAM, Alexander). You may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.
• To start the submission process please click on Apply Now.

Application Deadline: June 30, 2021

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Graders Needed for Essay Competition

The  John Locke Institute  is seeking final-year undergraduate and graduate students who might be interested in becoming graders of our Essay Competition for appropriate remuneration.

The globally renowned John Locke Institute annual essay competition covers topics in the categories of Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Law, Theology, and Psychology. Free to enter, the competition attracts entries from students of 14 to 18 years old from all over the world. Since its launch, it has been growing apace. Last year, we received about 7,400 entries from students with the widest possible range of socioeconomic backgrounds from over 100 countries.

For most participants, the competition provides their first opportunity to research, write and have graded a university-style essay that makes an original argument. The experience motivates many of them to raise their sights to institutions of learning of the highest quality – such as the Ivy League in the USA, and Oxbridge in the UK – that they would otherwise have not considered.

Submitted essays are graded in the first instance by academically talented graduates and final-year undergraduates, before the very best of them are sent to Professors in the relevant disciplines for final marking and the selection of prize-winners.

The three questions in the Economics category for which we are looking for graders are as follows.

Q1 . A government funds its own expenditure by taxing its population. Suppose, instead, it relied solely on money newly created by the central bank? What would be the advantages and/or disadvantages?  

Q2 . In his thought experiment, the Iowa Car Crop, David Friedman tries to show that growing wheat is, in an important sense, just another ‘technology’ we can use for manufacturing cars, and in some circumstances a much more efficient one.

If international trade is thus a way of using less valuable inputs to produce more valuable outputs, why would governments impose trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas, thereby forcing producers to be more wasteful and less efficient?

Q3 . What would happen if we banned billionaires?

The grading work will be intense, interesting and satisfying, and begin on  July 1, to be completed in about two weeks . Graders have flexibility regarding their hours and speed at which they work.

Essays are up to 2000 words long and need only be given a numerical grade. We will pay  $2 per essay  and require a  commitment to grade 500 essays  (or more only if the grader wishes to do more). A grader who has hit his or her stride should be able to make at least $25 an hour.

Further details and examples of previous years’ questions can be viewed on our  website .

Interested final-year undergraduate and graduate students should email  [email protected]  to declare their interest and obtain further details.

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Suyeon Kim Awarded Commendation in John Locke Institute’s Global Essay Competition

St. Johnsbury Academy junior Suyeon Kim, of Jeju, South Korea, was recently awarded a Commendation in the Theology category of the John Locke Institute’s Global Essay Competition. Suyeon attended the commendation ceremony in London, England in late 2023.

The John Locke Institute’s website offers some background on the organization: “The John Locke Institute is an independent educational organization that works to embolden the best and brightest students to become more academically ambitious and more intellectually adventurous. Through our various programs – residential courses, revision seminars, essay competitions, and special events – we inspire students to aim high and we equip them with the skills they need in order to achieve their goals. The Institute is named in honor of the eminent seventeenth century Oxford philosopher, John Locke.” The John Locke Institute also offers competitive summer programs at Princeton University, Oxford University and in Washington, D.C. and Singapore.

In her essay, Suyeon responded to the question, “What distinguishes a small religion from a large cult?” She begins, “’Cult plus time, or people, is religion’. This is one of the worst and the most pervaded misconceptions about cults. Such an idea is often introduced by impactful media as if it were true. Is it?” Her essay goes on to consider many different aspects of cults, and ends, “As a whole, cults exist for one person, and religions exist for everyone. Cults may seem similar to religion on the outermost surface, but on the inside, everything is different. Even if it is as small as one advisory class, or even smaller, religions seek positive impacts from their gods on their believers whereas people being forcefully gathered to devote themselves to the human cult leader is the number one priority in cults.”

Jamie Whyte, Chairman of Examiners for the John Locke Institute, congratulated Suyeon on the Institute’s behalf: “It is my very great pleasure to congratulate you on being awarded a Commendation in the Theology category of the John Locke Institute’s 2023 Global Essay Competition. You can be proud of this achievement. I hope the experience of researching and writing this essay will confer on you lasting benefits.”

Formerly a student at St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju, St. Johnsbury Academy’s sister school in South Korea, Suyeon Kim began studying at St. Johnsbury Academy as part of the school’s exchange program. After spending a semester in St. Johnsbury, Suyeon decided to transfer permanently, and she now attends St. Johnsbury Academy as a boarding student.

Suyeon was honored to be recognized by this international organization. She said, “When I first got the email that I got into the finalist stage, I was just so happy. As soon as I started writing the essay, I knew that this would become my favorite essay of all time. To win an award for this big competition was, of course, important for me, but the genuine meaning of submitting this essay was to prove that my experiences made me braver and more mature. Now that I have been recognized by the John Locke Institute and from this publication, I feel so grateful to have this meaningful time in my high school. I want to especially thank Mr. Glenn Ehrean, who helped to review my works before the submission and who is also my first history teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy.”

Glenn Ehrean, Suyeon’s teacher and Director of the Academy’s Colwell Center for Global Understanding, said, “Suyeon was a student in my World Civilizations course. She is quiet, gracious, and wise beyond her years. She understands the iterative process of developing ideas and articulating them. It’s hard work, but she embraces it. It was an honor to review her essay. I was not surprised that it was recognized by the board of examiners.”

Headmaster Dr. Sharon Howell is also very proud of Suyeon’s accomplishment. She said, “This is a wonderful example of how good teaching and mentorship can help students achieve in powerful, life-changing ways. I’m grateful to all of Suyeon’s teachers and very proud of her.”

More information about the John Locke Institute and its programs is available at https://www.johnlockeinstitute.com/.

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BHS students earn distinction in international essay competition

A group of students at Bermuda High School were recognised for their entry into a major international essay competition.

Sienna Spurling, Joy Ella Yammine and Aditi Varwandkar were all shortlisted for their entries in the junior category of this year’s John Locke Institute 2023 Global Essay Prize, while both Sienna and Joy were awarded distinctions.

The three travelled to Oxford last week for the prize giving ceremony.

While about 19,000 entries were made in the competition, distinctions were only awarded to 15 per cent of the shortlisted entries.

The junior category challenged students to produce an essay based on one of five topics including if safety is more important than fun, how the writer would spend $10 billion to make the world better and why John Locke is sometimes called the father of liberalism.

Essays are judged on understanding of the relevant material, the use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force.

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An examination of modern faith and our human nature to want to look beyond scientific fact has earned a Westminster pupil a podium place in a prestigious global essay competition

Selected from hundreds of entries to the Theology category of the 2022 John Locke Institute Essay Competition, Chloe (PP, Sixth Form) was awarded third place for her essay, Is Faith Anything Other than Uncertain Belief on Incomplete Evidence? , a study of the emergence of new interpretations of faith in the early twenty-first century. In considering the New Atheist stance that theological beliefs cannot be supported by logical or empirical evidence and are, therefore, meaningless, Chloe explores why such an approach to faith could be deemed as reductionist to a religious believer. She concludes by suggesting that human nature implores us to find meaning beyond simple scientific explanation and, for many, religious faith is essential in providing the foundations to do so.

The John Locke Institute’s annual, global essay competition invites young scholars to show their depth of knowledge and persuasiveness of writing across seven different subjects: philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology and law, and gives a chance for work to be read and assessed by experts from the University of Oxford . This year more than 8,000 students entered from across the globe. In the Theology category, Chloe was placed behind only students from Australia and the USA, and across all seven categories just three UK students were placed within the top three.

As a shortlisted essayist, Chloe was invited to attend three days of lectures to debate issues surrounding theology, law and economics at the John Locke Institute, Oxford.

Twitter Post

The defence of faith beyond scientific reasoning explored by Westminster pupil in award-winning essay Selected from hundreds of entries to the Theology category of the 2022 @JohnLockeInst Essay Competition, Chloe (PP, Sixth Form) was awarded third place. https://t.co/aQVDmKPPyv pic.twitter.com/CWPSAK3tNS — Westminster School (@wschool) October 6, 2022

Chloe said of winning third prize: “The news came as a shock to me. I had read the essays of previous winners on the website, all of which were incredible, and I never dreamed that I would be able to produce anything of that level. During the awards ceremony, whilst the judges were announcing the names of people who had received a commendation for their essays, I was shivering all over because I thought they had forgotten about me. I’m still in disbelief.

“As someone who grew up in a largely secular background, I had always wanted to know more about the different and diverse worldviews across the globe. Writing to address a question that required in-depth knowledge about religion thus helped me further my understanding of individual religious communities. Putting academics aside, however, I was aware that the topic I had been exploring was extremely poignant and personal, which made writing it all the more meaningful.

“It took me around a month to research and write the essay. Initially, I had spent a week on my first draft, but afterwards I completely redrafted a second version of the essay where I changed my entire stance.”

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