Application Deadline: September 30th 2019
VOICE Innovation Lab calls for entries for the maiden edition of its annual Research Essay Competition in Nigeria.
The essay competition which is put together for undergraduates in tertiary institutions in Enugu State and the FCT is organized as part of VOICE Innovation Lab: Youth2Youth Flagship for Social Change initiative to promote creative writing and reading culture amongst youth in Nigeria to highlight and address challenges faced by Nigeria Youth and encourage active citizenship.
Eligibility:
The competition is open to Nigeria undergraduates in tertiary institutions in Enugu and FCT, between the ages of 18-25 only.
Objectives:
The essay competition aims to advance theory and extend knowledge on the root causes and dynamics of youth marginalisation as well as on the variety of collective responses provided by young people to deal with existing socio-political economy constraints.
Findings to be published to foster policy advocacy for change. The research will adopt an interdisciplinary and gender-sensitive approach to analyse the diverse levels of marginalisation of young people in the development processes in Nigeria. The data will be captured by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Intense in-depth analysis of various kinds of public documents, academic studies and interviews with relevant stakeholders and key informants to investigate the factors of youth marginalisation.
Guideline:
- No entry fee is required.
- All entries must be original works, in English.
- Each entrant may submit only one essay.
- All entries are final. No revisions are accepted.
- Plagiarism and off-topic will result in outright disqualification.
- Entries should not have been previously published in any professional media.
- Entries must be from 3000 words in length. This does not include referencing such as footnotes and bibliography.
- All entries must be double-spaced in Times New Roman 12pt, with numbered pages in MS Word. All other formats will be disqualified.
- The personal information in the entry must be correct. If the competition winner is not reachable due to wrong information (contact number, address and etc.) the prize will be cancelled and be automatically given to the next runner-up.
- The decisions of the judges are final and are entirely their own and in no part represents the opinion of WAG-ARC.
- At the discretion of the WAG-ARC, all well-written essays may be published on the relevant national dailies and Websites.
- WAG-ARC reserves First Serial Rights on all submissions. All other rights to the essay remain in the property of the author.
- Students can give their essay any caption of their choice. The student before submitting should include the following information on top of their entry:
- Full name (as it appears in your valid identity card)
- Sex
- Age (Date of Birth)
- Registration Number
- School name and address.
- Valid Phone number
- The student is also to insert a scanned copy of his or her birth certificate on the last page of the submitted document.
Submissions
As part of your application, make a short video stating ‘your motivation to join the competition’ (3 minutes max) and post it on your social media page (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and tag @wearewagarc. Use the hashtag #leadingchange.
All entries should be sent as an email in MS Word format to the following email address research@wagarc.org. The email subject should be your full name and the word “RESEARCH COMPETITION ENTRY” e.g “CIROMA_ADEKUNLE_RESEARCH_COMPETITON_ENTRY”
Winners prizes
There would be 3 winners for the overall essays. The shortlisted finalists will be invited to Abuja for an award ceremony on October 2019. The cost of both ‘travelling and accommodation’ will be borne by the organization. Also, the best 10 essays will be published both on the organization’s website and in a daily newspaper with the names of the writers of each essay.
1st prize: Laptop computer + N50,000 grant for books
2nd prize: Laptop computer + N30,000 grant for books
3rd prize: Laptop computer+ N20,000 grant for books
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the VOICE Innovation Lab Youth2Youth Annual Research Competition 2019