Prize Structure
- First Place: $1,500
- Second Place: $1,000
- Third Place: $500
Context for Analysis
In his recent book, American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation―and Could Again, Yuval Levin argues the following:
“Too many Americans are... persuaded that our Constitution is unsuited to our contemporary circumstances—that it assumes a more unified society than we now have, makes it too difficult to adapt to changing times, and so can only make our problems worse in this divided era. But the Constitution is not the problem we face. It is more like the solution. It was designed with an exceptionally sophisticated grasp of the nature of political division and diversity, and it aims to create—and not just to occupy—common ground in our society... We have... lost sight of how the Constitution goes about creating common ground... in ways that drag us into common action even (indeed, especially) when we disagree.”
Submission
Submission Form: Submit Your Entry Here
- 10 pages maximum
- 12-point Times New Roman
- Standard margin size
- Include a title page with your name (do not include your name on any other page)
- Use parenthetical references (Washington 2024, 12) with a separate reference section for citations
- Submit electronically to our Qualtrics Submission form by Friday, March 7th, 2025, at 5:00 PM ET
- A committee will read and rank the essays and announce winners in February
- Only full-time FSU undergraduates allowed to submit
- Scholarships processed through Financial Aid and disbursed through Student Business Services