June 10 - Climate Action/Advocacy
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Experts refer to climate change as an existential threat—to our social, ecological, and economic systems...to the overall health of our planet.
How do you envision the unique role that youth/YOU can play in framing this challenge, fostering collaborative action, innovating creative
solutions, and/or advocating for your future here in Delaware?
June 14 - A web of wonders
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When do you feel most closely connected to the wonders of nature? How does your sense of connectedness inspire and inform your experience of the natural
world and your place in it? Does it fuel and guide your motivation to protect it? How might we better inspire that sense, those motivations in others?
June 19 - Environmental Justice
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Everyone will be impacted by threats to the health of our natural environment and, most profoundly, by the effects of a warming planet, but some of us more than others.
All too often, those most negatively affected by these threats are least responsible for contributing to them. What do you consider examples of environmental
injustice? Have you or someone you know suffered the consequences? How might youth take action, individually and collectively, to raise awareness of, redress, and further prevent these injustices in Delaware?
Also, our diverse panel of twenty judges will review your essay as a pdf document with only a three-digit identifier on it. Multiple judges will read and assess the top essays before concluding the winners. They will review each document on these five equally weighted parameters:
Clarity – How clear are your reflections, arguments, opinions, and evidence?
Passion – How well do you convey your passion for the topic?
Attention to the topic – How closely your writing aligns with the topic?
Creativity – Here, judges will look for originality of thought in the essay—both in what and how it is presented.
Persuasiveness and effectiveness – How
effective and persuasive is your writing? Can it inspire a broader or more profound understanding of the issue, compelling friends, neighbors, and masses to action?.
Besides browsing our website delawareipl.org, we recommend you visit https://www.energizedelaware.org and https://dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov. Review Delaware's Climate Action Plan (CAP) on the DNREC website. Judges will appreciate some of your content in the local context of Delaware. Local stories, local challenges, successes and failures, experiences, etc.
In case of any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Charanjeet Singh Minhas charanjeetsinghminhas@gmail.com or Lisa Locke lisavlocke@gmail.com. Good Luck!