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Catholic Citizenship Essay Contest

You are invited to participate in the national 2024 Knights of Columbus “Catholic Citizenship Essay Contest”. This competition is open to 8th grade Catholic Students. The goal of the program is to involve you, as a young Catholic, in civic discourse and instill religious and life affirming values.
This year’s theme is:


What are the two most important virtues for an elected leader to possess, and why? How
can you determine if the leader has these virtues?


To assist your thought process, understand that virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do good. It governs our acts, orders our passions, and guides our conduct by reason and faith. It also encourages Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. The call to live a virtuous life applies to individuals in every state of life and occupation, including our elected leaders.


The following essay rules shall apply:

1. The essay should be 500-750 words in a PDF document.
2. The essay should be double-spaced with your assigned number and word count at the top.
3. Your name should not appear on the essay. Your teacher will assign a number to you.
4. Your PDF file name should be your assigned number from your teacher, e.g., A103.pdf.
    If your file name is mislabeled, your essay may be disqualified.
5. All essays are due on or before Friday, September 27, 2024.

Grading will be based on a 100-point system, broken down as follows:

Content – How clearly is the theme presented?..........................................................35 points
Grammar – Attention to structure of sentences and paragraphs……………………………..30 points
Style – Creativity, imagination and development of topic in compelling style.………….35 points

The first-place winner will receive a $100 cash award and a framed certificate.
We hope you will enter the competition, and we look forward to reviewing your essay.


We hope you will enter the competition and we look forward to reviewing your essay.

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Thank you for your entry. Your teacher will be contacted once we have chosen a winner. Good luck!

SUBMISSIONS. Should You decide to submit any materials to the Assembly via the website, whether as feedback, data, questions, comments, ideas, concepts, techniques, suggestions or the like, You agree that such submissions are unrestricted and shall be deemed non-confidential upon submission. You grant to the Assembly and its officers a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable license, with the right to sub-license, to use, copy, transmit, distribute, create derivative works of, commercialize, display and perform such submissions.

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