Profile in Courage High School Awards

Scholarship Sponsored by John F. Kennedy Library Foundation

Eligibility
- Open to students in the United States who are enrolled in grades 9–12 at public, private, parochial, or home schools.
- U.S. students under age 20 who are enrolled in high school correspondence or GED programs in any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or U.S. territories are eligible.
- U.S. citizens attending schools overseas may enter.
- Previous contest winners and finalists may not enter.
- Employees of the contest sponsors and their immediate family members are not eligible.

Key dates and formatting rules
- Submission deadline: January 12, 2026, by 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.
- Length: Essays must be at least 700 words and no more than 1,000 words. Citations and the bibliography are not counted toward the word total.
- Essays must not contain identifying information about the author.

Originality and use of AI
- Essays must be the student’s original work. Submissions may be screened for AI-generated content; any essay or bibliography found to include AI assistance will be disqualified. (See Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism.)

Topic requirements
- Each essay must explain an act of political courage performed by a U.S. elected official who served in or after 1917 (the year John F. Kennedy was born). The act may have occurred at the local, state, or national level.
- Because originality is a judging criterion, essays on frequently chosen or obvious subjects will score lower.
- The following subjects are not permitted:
- John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Edward M. Kennedy
- Any of the senators profiled in the book Profiles in Courage
- John Lewis (he received the Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement; essays about him are disqualified)
- Essays about previous Profile in Courage Award recipients will be disqualified unless the essay focuses on a different act of political courage than the one for which the recipient was honored.
- Choosing a subject who has been the focus of a past winning essay will reduce the essay’s score.

Sources and citation rules
- A minimum of five sources is required. Essays that list fewer than five sources will be disqualified.
- All sources used must be cited within the essay using parenthetical (in-text) citations. Footnotes are not acceptable.
- A bibliography is required; acceptable styles include APA, MLA, or Turabian. Consult the Guidelines for Citations and Bibliographies for details.

Nominating teacher requirements
- Every entrant must name a nominating teacher on the registration form.
- The nominating teacher’s role is to mentor and advise the student during the essay-writing process, review the draft for clarity and correctness (syntax, grammar, spelling, typographical errors), and confirm the submission meets contest rules.
- The student’s nominating teacher will be invited, along with the first-place winner, to the annual Profile in Courage Award ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
- Who may serve as a nominating teacher:
- Usually a current teacher at the student’s high school (English or History/Social Studies teachers are common choices). Nominating teachers may be current or former teachers, but must currently teach at the same high school as the participant.
- For homeschooled students, the parent or legal guardian responsible for instruction may act as the nominating teacher.
- Alternatively, a homeschooled student may use a high-school teacher from a previous school as their nominating teacher if that teacher emails confirmation to essaycontest@jfklfoundation.org.

Additional notes
- Refer to Contest Topic and Information and Helpful Tips for Writing Your Essay for further guidance on selecting and developing your subject.
- See Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism for information about acceptable use of sources and AI detection.