Contest Dates: June 12-Aug. 21, 2019
Every year since 2010 The Learning Network has invited teenagers around the world to add The New York Times to their summer reading lists and, so far, over 60,000 have.
At a time when teachers are looking for ways to offer students more “voice and choice,” we hope our open-ended contest can help: Every week, we ask participants to choose something in The Times that has sparked their interest, then tell us why. At the end of the week, judges from the Times newsroom pick favorite responses, and we publish them. It’s as simple as that.
Though our goals include some on many educators’ lists — helping students become more aware of the world and their place in it, learning how to navigate sophisticated nonfiction, and practicing writing for a real audience — we also just hope that students will realize that reading the newspaper can be fun. As you’ll see in the guidelines below, they can choose literally anything they like that was published on NYTimes.com in 2020. We don’t care what they write about; we just care about why they chose it.
Please note: We will update this page with more detailed rules and a submission form on or before June 12, 2020, the date when this contest officially opens.
Until then, take a look at the winning student responses from 2019, 2018 and 2017 to get a sense of the range of comments we have honored.
If you have any questions about this contest, please contact us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
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2020 Contest Rules and Guidelines
1. Every Friday during the contest, we will post the same questions: “What interested you most in The Times this week? Why?” That is where you should post your picks (and reasons) any time until the next Friday. Then we will close that post to comments and open a new one with the same questions.
2. You can choose from anything published in the print paper or on NYTimes.com in 2020, including videos, graphics, slide shows and podcasts.
3. Feel free to participate any or every week, but we allow only one submission per person per week.
4. Responses must be 300 words or fewer.
5. Make sure to provide us with the full URL or headline (for example, “How to Deal With a Jerk Without Being a Jerk” or https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/smarter-living/how-to-deal-with-a-jerk-without-being-a-jerk.html).
6. New York Times journalists, Learning Network editors and educators will serve as judges.
7. Every Tuesday during the contest, ending on the day after the U.S. holiday Labor Day, we will publish a previous week’s winner or winners in a separate article you can find here. We will also celebrate the winners on Twitter and Facebook.
8. What is the “prize”? Having your work published on The Learning Network.
9. Submissions must be from middle and high school students. We are still determining what the minimum age will be. Please stay tuned.
10. The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees, or teenagers who live in the same household as a Times employee, are not eligible to enter this contest.
