 Okay, all right, I think we'll go ahead and get started. So good afternoon everyone or good morning if you're not on the east coast. I know we're straddling time zones here. Welcome to this virtual information session on the American Foreign Service Association's National High School Essay Contest. I know we have some students and teachers and parents on this call, so I hope that the information we provide you today will answer your questions about this contest and encourage you all to participate in it. While you're all in listen mode throughout, please feel free to share any questions. So this is an opportunity to ask questions you might have. We will present some frequently asked questions, but please chime in with any that come up at any point. And I encourage you to use the Q&A function for this. And if you see a question in the Q&A that someone else's post that you think is really important to you, feel free to bump it up with a thumbs up and that will let us know that it's of interest to you. I'm Megan Chabalowski and I'm a program officer with the public education team at the US Institute of Peace where I lead our work with American K-12 schools. The US Institute of Peace is a national non-partisan independent institute founded by Congress and dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical, and essential for US and national security. So we partner with the American Foreign Service Association or AFSA, as you'll hear us say, on the annual national high school essay contest. So this contest is a really important part of our outreach to schools as it engages high school students in learning and writing about issues of peace and conflict, encouraging appreciation for diplomacy's role in building partnerships that can advance peace building and protect national security. So I'd like to present my, I'd like to introduce my co-presenter today Theo Horn of AFSA. And then Theo, do you want to introduce yourself and then jump right into an overview of the contest? Certainly, that sounds great. Great. Well, thank you Megan for the introduction. As you mentioned, my name is Theo Horn and I am the awards and scholarships manager at the American Foreign Service Association or AFSA. AFSA is the Professional Association and Labor Union for the United States Foreign Service. That is to say all the diplomats that work at the US State Department, US, US Agency for International Development, as well as a few other smaller foreign affairs agencies within the US government. Part of AFSA's role is to foster or part of our goals, I should say rather, is to increase understanding among the American people of the vital role that the US Foreign Service and diplomats play in keeping America strong and encouraging strong US global leadership. To that end, we have the National High School Essay Contest. For the past 23 years, AFSA has been offering the Essay Contest as a means to raise awareness about the foreign service, US foreign policy, international policy, and just peace building as a whole. Over the years, we've picked up a lot of great partners, including of course the US Institute of Peace, the Semester at Sea, and the National Student Leadership Conference. All of these organizations work together with AFSA to provide a lot of great support with administering the contest, assets for students to use as they're considering the essay and the prompt, as well as some really engaging experiences that we can offer to our winners of the contest every year. This year specifically, the High School Essay Contest has students to write a short 1,000 to 1,250 word essay on what characteristics lead to a successful effort by diplomats and peace builders to mediate and prevent violent conflicts around the world. We hope that this allows students to gain a more nuanced understanding of the foreign service, diplomats, what they do, how they do it, and the great success that these efforts bring all around the world. Every year, AFSA receives hundreds of submissions from students across the United States. Just to use last year as an example, we were lucky enough to receive around 450 submissions from students scattered across, I believe, 36 different states and even a few US territories, so competition can get quite fierce, we'll say. The winner of the essay contest will receive a $2,500 cash prize in addition to an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C., where they will have a reception in their honor, meet with State Department leadership, as well as tour the city. This is, of course, in addition to an all-expense paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea, which they can use as a wonderful study abroad experience when they get to college. The runner-up of the contest receives a $1,250 cash prize, along with a full tuition to attend a summer program of the National Student Leadership Conference's International Diplomacy Program, also taking place in Washington D.C. We have a lot of great stuff to talk about today. We're hoping we get a lot of great questions about the contest, the prompts, and this can just be another resource that you use going forward as you start to think about your essay and think about what you want to write about. I think I'll kick it back over to Megan right now, who's going to talk about USIP's study guide, which is probably one of the greatest assets that we have available this year. USIP has put together this wonderful study guide that provides students with an excellent foundation on where to start with their essay, how to attack it, some good examples, a list of great resources. Without further ado, I'll kick things back over to Megan. Thank you, Theo. I wanted to just share with you all where you can find the study guide and a little bit about what's in it to tell you more about how we want to help you approach this topic. So I'm going to share my screen here real quick and show you online. So you can find the study guide both on our website on USIP's website for essay contest page and on AFSA's website as well for the essay contest page, right, Theo? I think I remember seeing it on there. That's correct, yes. AFSA.org slash contest, have all you need. Awesome. Great. So you can see it here on the right and then you just download it. And I wanted to tell you a little bit about what you'll find in here if you haven't already had a chance to look at it. So as Theo said, we developed this study guide in partnership with AFSA to provide students with a basic introduction to the topic and some additional context that you can use in answering the question. I'm just making sure that everything's working. Great. Thank you so for dropping those links in. Awesome. But just a reminder, you are being tasked with developing your own unique research. So this guide is really just a starting point to that research. In the guide, you'll find an essay, you'll find the essay question, prizes and rules for the contest, an introduction to diplomacy and peace building, key terms, examples of peace building initiatives, and a list of other useful resources. So I wanted to just show you a little bit of what you'll find in here. So this is what it looks like. You'll find things like learning that diplomacy is put into practice by those who work at embassies abroad. So this is a great place to come for a basic understanding of what diplomacy is and what it means to be a Foreign Service Officer. So you'll learn about FSOs. It's a professional career track. And you'll learn that members of the Foreign Service at the US Department of State are assigned to one of five cones, right? So consular, economic, management, political or public diplomacy. So you'll want to dig more deeply into these roles as part of your research to show and demonstrate your understanding of what a Foreign Service Officer does. But it's also a really great place to start for an introduction to the field of peace building. So later in the study guide, you'll find you'll learn that peace building initiatives seek to prevent conflict from becoming violent or to end it when it does and to transform relationships and governance structures to address the root causes of conflict and promote positive change. So for those who have never heard of peace building or peace building initiatives, this is a great place to start. It'll tell you that peace building involves many actors and takes places at lots of different levels. So you'll see this tool on the right, which talks about peace building from the top down and the bottom up and tells you about the levels that peace building takes place at and the corresponding actors and approaches. So you'll want to dig more deeply into these also as part of your research. Then you'll finally find examples of some peace building initiatives. So if you've never really thought about what a peace building initiative is, we've provided a few examples here and they have articles that you can read for more information and some reflection questions that you can use to deepen your understanding and to make some connections. So we really want to encourage you to think very creatively when selecting your peace building initiative and so we hope that this study guide will give you some new ideas, things that maybe you haven't heard of before. So that's the study guide and I wanted to just close out with a quote from a colleague of ours at the US Institute of Peace and I'm going to stop sharing this and start sharing the slides again real fast. So bear with me while I switch over. And I think this quote really speaks to why it's important to look at how diplomats work with peace builders at the top level, so with the government, but also all the way down to the grassroots with citizens. So thinking creatively about peace building initiatives. So this is from our USIP board of directors, vice chair ambassador George Moose, who is a retired career diplomat. And he says, much of my diplomatic career was consumed with issues of conflict and conflict resolution. I therefore know and value the critical role diplomats so often play in seeking to prevent or resolve violent conflicts. But I also understand that diplomatic efforts that focus largely on political or military elites so people at the top are not sufficient in themselves to create the conditions for sustainable peace. They must be complemented by grassroots efforts designed to involve citizens and communities in building peace and resilience. So USIP's experience and research demonstrates that prospects for lasting peace are enhanced by strategies that intentionally incorporate top down and bottom up approaches. So I use this quote to inspire you as you launch into thinking about what you want to research for this contest and to think about all the different resources you can find. So that's our introduction to the contest and the study guide. And we're now just going to turn to some questions. And we'd love for you to start sending some questions you have to us. You can use the Q and A function. If that's confusing, you can drop it in the chat box. That's fine. We do have a few frequently asked questions that we thought we could launch into as well. So I guess I should have stopped sharing. I'm going to share again and pull those up. And then please do contribute your questions as we go through ours. So these are things that we hear a lot. All right. The first question, Theo, I'm going to turn to you for this. So what will my essay be judged on? And what are the judges looking for? Sure. So your essay is going to be charged on the person foremost on the quality of your analysis, the quality of your research, how many sources you use, what are your inferences are you getting from those sources, things like that. And finally, just miscellaneous grammar, things of that nature, mechanics, and just your general style. Those count for about 100 points total, quality of analysis being, I believe 60 points, quality of sources being 30 and the other 10 being your style and mechanics. Judges are looking for a first and foremost, how well you answer the prompt. Do you take a situation where a successful peacebuilding effort took place, break it down, talk about what characteristics were common throughout all stages, other interagency within the United States, actors in the host country, as well as maybe non-governmental organizations, things like that. Really just take a bird's-eye view of the situation and pick out the things that work, the characteristics that worked throughout. That's what our judges are going to be focusing on this year. Can you say something about what they're looking for in reference to foreign service officers? So I know that's something each year that's part of the prompt and that's sometimes a little hit and miss. So maybe you could say more about what kind of understanding about the foreign service judges are looking for. Sure, sure. Well, as the American Foreign Service Association, as you might expect, we're particularly sensitive about foreign service officers and making sure that they're mentioned in the essay as they're the ones that are on the ground. They're the practitioners that are working on a lot of these issues. You need to at least be mentioning foreign service officers. You need to mention them by name in a lot of cases, hopefully. We just want to be sure that you understand what a foreign service officer is. I'll point back to the study guide making shared, showing an understanding of the different cones that a foreign service officer is in would be a great example of showing us that you really did your research. You understand what a foreign service officer is, why they're there, and just that they are part of a larger organization that they work with other foreign service officers and people that are employed by the State Department to tackle these problems up there. You know that both the foreign service officer and the larger foreign service apparatus, you understand both is what I would say is quite important to us. That's really helpful, Theo. Thank you. The next question that we hear a lot is why should I or why should my students write this essay? Why should we do this contest? Theo, maybe I'll turn to you to kick us off and then I have a couple thoughts as well. Please. For me, it's really two major things about why this essay is important. The first being it gives you a nuanced understanding of a career that a lot of people don't hear about. You read the news every morning and you see these various international deals, trade deals, peace treaties, things like that. It's so valuable, especially for students that are interested in international affairs and foreign policy, to understand that it's people that do that. That, you know, that this is a process and that they're actually humans working on this. And it gives you a better understanding of how things like this can come about, how these peace treaties are made, that, you know, there's actual people talking together. It humanizes foreign policy, foreign affairs, things like that. And other than that, it just gives, I think it gives you, give students a fascinating opportunity to study a possible career path of their, of international relations, foreign affairs, something they're really interested in. I know I had no idea what the foreign service was when I was in high school. And to be able to take an abstract concept like international affairs or international relations and really be able to understand the career, the people that are really passionate about this take is just super valuable as you're trying to figure out your career in the future and your options for that going forward. Yeah, thank you, Theo. I mean, I think this idea of, this is an opportunity to learn about things we don't usually learn about is a great point. And from my perspective, we learn a lot about conflict in school. We learn about what conflict in life, but we don't learn as much about peace. And so this is a really nice opportunity to, to learn about a historical or even recent event, but through the lens of people working to resolve it. So you're gaining new knowledge, new content knowledge and even and peace building skills like conflict analysis. I mean, doing this essay will be a great practice of conflict analysis. But then you're also being reminded there are people working for peace in all the places that you see in the news for conflict. And so it's a really nice way to draw to the fore these stories that you don't ever usually get a chance to see or learn about. And so it's a nice opportunity for that as well. Plus the prizes are awesome. And I wish I could do that. So that's a good reason to do it, too, is to try to get these prizes. All right. So next question we see often is where can I find helpful resources? So Theo, maybe I'll turn to you. Well, first and foremost, I would say start with the study guide. That's going to be, like I said, your foundational document for when you just coming out today, just see the essay contest mentioned on the website, go check out the study guide, read through that, really set you up and let you know what kind of resources you should be looking for. But even in addition to that, the website has a lot of useful resources. We have after produces a foreign service journal that has firsthand accounts by written by foreign service officers dating back 100 years of what they've done in their job, various conflicts of peacebuilding efforts, trade deals, things like that. That's a really good resource for you to sort of get acquainted with some of these conflicts and how they were resolved. We also, after it also produces inside a U.S. Embassy, which like the study guide will give you a very, very in-depth look of the day-to-day goings-on in a U.S. Embassy abroad. It goes through all different cones from entry level to top ambassadors, just what they do in a day, what their schedule looks like, how they view things. And it's just a really good source, especially for characteristics because you will see a lot of common threads as you read through the book between all these different people across various specialties and levels of experience. Just to add on to that, USAP has a lot of good research on our website. If you're looking at a particular place, come to our website and see, get more information on Afghanistan or Iraq or Sudan or South Sudan, we're a good place to start as well. And then as you identify your scenario and you begin to look at all of the actors involved, consider looking at their websites too. I know the United Nations has a lot of great resources, especially if you look at the United Nations Peace Building Department or the United Nations Development Program, those are great places to go. Non-profits like Search for Common Ground or places or NGOs, non-governmental organizations that also are involved in these places, will be a rich place to have some rich resources too, especially stories or even interviews with people. So think creatively about what resources you're using and go to maybe the websites of some of the actors who are involved as well because you'll find some really great things there. All right. This is for you. What citation style should we be using and how many sources? Of course. So ASSA requires that you use MLA citation format, a good resource on how to do that. I mean, I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with it being students, but Purdue OWL is a good resource on how to do MLA citations in a paper like this. As far as sources are concerned, there's no hard and fast rule. I've seen people do a lot with a little and of course vice versa in some unfortunate cases, but I would say a general rule of thumb would be between six and 10, probably more towards the 10. We want to see a wide breadth of research, but it does depend on the paper and the topic you choose, how readily available some of the sources will be. But yeah, I would say six to 10 would be a minimum. Great. We just have a couple more questions that we are usually asked that we're going to share with you, but please do feel free to drop your own questions into the Q&A boxes and we'll try to address any questions that you might have too if we're missing something that's on your mind. All right. So Theo, given the circumstances surrounding COVID, how will the prizes this year be handled? That's a very good question. Last year, we unfortunately had to defer the prizes until this coming year. Fortunately, both of our winners last year were underclassmen in high school, but they have some time to claim their prizes until they graduate school. Should that happen this year and things still aren't up and running, we'd be happy to do the same. The cash prize will be granted regardless of any other circumstances surrounding COVID. The trips to DC and the leadership conference, those will be given as soon as we're able to as soon as public health commissions allow us, but they will not disappear. You're not going to lose anything. The prizes are still yours. It's just a matter of when you can redeem them and we will work to get that done as soon as possible, believe me. Okay, great. And last but not least, when are the winners usually announced? Right. So the deadline is early April. We will get together our judging teams. All judges are volunteers, former or current foreign service officers, so they'll be able to know what they're talking about, let's say, and they will judge things throughout the month of April. They'll kick us their top choices, USIP and ASSA. We'll also go through our own internal review at the top contenders. And we will usually make the announcement towards the end of May, usually mid-May-ish, June at the absolute latest. Okay, great. Well, that's the information we wanted to share with you all based on things that we know are often on people's minds. I don't see any additional questions, so I'm going to think that we did an excellent job at answering some of the ones that folks might have. But if something comes up where you had a question that you didn't get a chance to ask or as you get further into the process and you realize you still have a question, feel free to reach out to either of us after this. So here's my email. You can contact Theo through this essay contest email at AFSA. We're here to help you and to answer any questions you might have. This will be recorded or it is being recorded and we're going to put the recording on our website. For all of the students on here and for teachers and parents, nobody will be, there's no way to identify anybody. It's a webinar, so you'll just see the slide. So there are no names of any participants, so please don't worry about privacy. But it does mean that this information is living on USIP's website, so you can go back and find this webinar if you want to later or send it on to any friends or colleagues who might find it useful. Follow us on social media, both AFSA and USIP, because we will be putting out updates and ideas and resources and things that we find helpful through our social media accounts, in particular for us, Twitter and Facebook. So it's very easy to follow us. You can go to our websites and find our information. I will just say that we hope that this has been really helpful and that those who are on this call and those who are watching afterwards are inspired to participate if you are on the fence, that you go ahead and do it. It's a great contest each year. It is, as I said at the beginning, just one of the things that we each do. So if you'd like to learn more about our resources for schools, you can go to USIP's public education page, where we have a lot of additional resources for teachers, for students and for schools more broadly, including curriculum, additional student contests, webinars for educators. So you can find a lot, some more information there. And AFSA, of course, has some other things that they offer as well. Theo, is there anything in particular you wanted to say about that? Yeah, before I say that, notice we got a question in the chat here real fast. Happy to answer that. Someone asked, could we reiterate how many students participate each year? It fluctuates. Usually we get about, last year as the example, we got about 450 essay submissions. Of those, about usually half to two thirds qualify. So looking at probably around two to 300 qualifying essays that are judged every year. Great. Thanks, Brian. Oh, thanks. And you'll see in the chat that my colleague, Yusuf, has dropped our Twitter handles in there. Great. So you can find us at those Twitter handles, which is great. All right. Maybe we'll, we've got exactly one minute left. And feel free to drop, if you have any final questions, feel free to drop them in. And otherwise, Theo, I'll turn to you in case there's anything more you want to say about AFSA's resources. Yeah, I would just like to thank everyone for coming. We appreciate you taking interest in the essay contest and hope, even if you don't participate, this inspires you to learn a bit more about AFSA and the Foreign Service as a whole. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions and check out afsa.org, the student section, or a lot more educational resources. AFSA has a speakers bureau that we like to send diplomats and other foreign service professionals to schools to speak on the due for living or even specific countries or regions of the world that people are interested in learning about. Other than that, the FSJ is a great resource. If you're really looking to drill into the world of the foreign service and other than that, wish you the best of luck in the contest. Thank you, Theo. Thanks for joining me today. And thank you to all of you who've joined. And as Theo said, good luck. We wish you well.