Contact B'nai B'rith

1120 20th Street NW, Suite 300N Washington, D.C. 20036

info@bnaibrith.org

202-857-6600

Our Diverse Minds NYC Challenge has Just Launched! See below or click here for Details. Deadline August 24, 2018.

What Is Diverse Minds?

The Diverse Minds Writing Challenge is an education and awareness initiative created by B’nai B’rith International as one of its programs to promote tolerance and communicate a message of equality among all citizens, regardless of race, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation. Our goal is to destroy prejudices and strengthen the future of our youth through creativity, inspiration and education.
This innovative scholarship competition asks high school students to write and illustrate a children’s book that tells a story of tolerance, diversity or inclusion. Executed through public, private and charter high schools in select communities, the Challenge encourages teens to create innovative ways to teach tolerance to elementary-aged children, as well as encounter new insights into these issues for themselves.

The contest winner in each contest city/region will receive a $5,000 college scholarship and become a published author! 


Contest Details

Contest participants should think about how tolerance, diversity and inclusion can improve our world, and then create innovative ways to share these ideas with elementary-aged children through a children’s book.
 
Submissions should provide a story that children can identify with and relate to, alongside of illustrations that are thoughtful, beautiful and relatable to the story outlined on each page.

While this is not a comprehensive list, students can consider the following issues when choosing a topic for their books:

  • Bullying in schools
  • Children and adults with disabilities
  • Diverse families: LGBT parents; inter-generational, foster and single parent homes
  • Equal rights
  • Religious and cultural tolerance

See previous award-winning submissions:

Contest Rules

  • The contest is open to high school students currently enrolled in grades 9-12 in the listed contest cities/regions who have not previously published an original manuscript for profit. If you have a question about if your high school is in the contest region, please email diverseminds@bnaibrith.org.
  • Entries must be the original work of the student(s) and only one entry is accepted per student/team.
  • Submissions may be fiction or nonfiction and must be written for an audience of children in grades K-5. Please note that long blocks of text are not age-appropriate.
  • Entries should consist of a complete story with full-color illustrations and include text and art on each page; any type of artistic medium may be used.
  • Entries shall be no longer than 24 pages, with a minimum of 16 pages.
  • Students may work individually or as a team of two to complete the project. Teams will split the scholarship prize money.
  • Submissions must include a cover letter. (Please refer to Submission Guidelines for details)
  • Once submitted, all entries are property of B’nai B’rith International. B’nai B’rith retains all rights to the content of the books.
  • The winners will receive their awards, scholarship prizes, and published book at an Awards Presentation Event to be held in May/June 2018 within each contest city/region.
  • Here are the winning submissions from our 2016-2017 contest.
This Year’s Contest Cities/Regions

PEPCO

Washington, D.C. Metro Area

Students in 9-12th grades enrolled in District of Columbia Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools and Prince George’s County Public Schools, or enrolled in private, charter or independent schools within those counties/cities, are eligible to participate.

Please thoroughly read the contest rules, write and illustrate your book, and submit the manuscript by the contest deadline.

> Download the program flyer (complete with all necessary contest information).

B’nai B’rith would like to thank PEPCO for its continued support of the D.C. area Challenge.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 16, 2018


Atlantic City Electric

Atlantic City Electric Region (Southern New Jersey) 

The contest is open to all currently enrolled 9-12th grade students within the following counties in South Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean and Salem.    

Please thoroughly read the contest rules, write and illustrate your book, and submit the manuscript by the contest deadline.

> Download the program flyer (complete with all necessary contest information). 

B’nai B’rith would like to thank Atlantic City Electric (ACE) for its continued support of the South Jersey Challenge.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 16, 2018


delmarva power

Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware & Maryland)

Students in 9-12th grades enrolled in regional public schools or enrolled in private, charter or independent schools within the following counties/cities, are eligible to participate:

  1. Delaware: Kent, New Castle and Sussex Counties
  2. Maryland: Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico and Worcester Counties

Please thoroughly read the contest rules, write and illustrate your book, and submit the manuscript by the contest deadline.

> Download the program flyer (complete with all necessary contest information).

B’nai B’rith would like to thank Delmarva Power for its continued support of the Delmarva Challenge.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 16, 2018


New York City

We have just launched our New York challenge! Please see the submission details below. Deadline August 24, 2018.

Students in grades 9-12 currently residing in one of the five New York City boroughs (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens), and who have not previously published an original manuscript for profit, are eligible to participate.

Please thoroughly read the contest rules, write and illustrate your book and submit the manuscript by the contest deadline. 

B’nai B’rith would like to thank the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, The Ludwig Family Foundation and McGraw-Hill Education for their support of the NYC Challenge.

B’nai B’rith would like to thank First Data for their support of the NYC Challenge.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: August 24, 2018


Submission Information

Please note the deadline for your contest city/region.

Submissions can be sent via U.S. Mail, Fedex or UPS, or be emailed.  

For mailed submissions, please send to:

B’nai B’rith International
4605 Lankershim Blvd, Suite 710
Los Angeles, CA 91602

For emailed submissions, please send to:
diverseminds@bnaibrith.org

Submissions MUST include a cover letter with the following information:

  • Full name and contact information (home address, phone number and email address) of the author(s) and or illustrator(s)
  • Student’s High School name and address
  • Full name and contact information of the student’s teacher or supervising educator
  • A biographical note of no less than 100 and no more than 400 words with any other information you would like us to consider as part of your submission
  • Region Contest that you are applying to ie: Washington, D.C./ Pepco Contest, Delmarva Peninsula Contest, New York City Contest or South Jersey/ ACE Contest

NOTE: If we do not receive a cover letter with ALL of the information listed above, your submission will not be processed. If you cannot or do not wish to provide any of the above details, please contact us via email at diverseminds@bnaibrith.org.

Students who send their submissions via email will receive a confirmation response. If you do not receive a confirmation email within a week of sending your submission, please email us to be sure that we received it at diverseminds@bnaibrith.org.

Students wishing to have hard copy submissions returned MUST note this on their cover letter and include a postage paid envelope along with their submission.  

Status letters revealing whether or not submissions have placed in the Top 10, and therefore will be considered for the top prizes, will be sent to students in April/May 2018.


Prizes & Award Details

In each contest city/region, the winners will be awarded with the following prizes:

> First prize: A $5,000 college scholarship and publication of the book*

> Second prize: $2,000 college scholarship**

> Third prize: $1,000 college scholarship**

Teacher prize: A grant of $1,000 will be awarded to the teacher who oversees the creation of the first place submission.

School grant: A grant of $500 will be awarded to the school of the winning participant(s).

The winners will receive their awards, scholarship prizes and published book at an Award Presentation Event to be held in May/June 2018 within each contest city/region.

The students whose submissions place in the Top 10, along with their parents, teachers and principals, will be invited to attend the Award Presentation Events.

*The winning book in each city/region will be professionally published and copies will be donated to each public library and elementary school within the local community. B’nai B’rith retains all rights to the published books.

**All prizes will be shared if more than one student, teacher or school wins.


Judging

 Judging will be based on the following criteria: creativity, artistic and writing skill, clarity of message, uniqueness of story topic, understanding for the intended audience and appropriateness to the contest themes. B’nai B’rith staff and leadership will do a preliminary judging round to determine the Top 10 finalists in each city/contest region.

Each contest in each city/region will have its own judging panel – students will compete only with other students from within their communities.

The city/region-specific judging panels, consisting of community leaders, political officials, educators, artists, writers and local celebrities, will choose the first, second and third place winners from the group of finalists.  Previous judging panel members have included the Executives Vice President of B’nai B’rith International, author Judy Blume, the NYC Police Commissioner, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., the Chief of Children’s Literature at the Library of Congress Dr. Sybille Jagusch, and the Executive Director of the Children’s Book Council Robin Adelson. 

Within each contest city/region, the submission with the greatest number of votes out of the total number of votes from all judges will be selected as the first place winner. The awards, scholarship prizes and published book will be presented at an Award Presentation Event, to be held in each city/region in May/June of 2018 within each contest city/region.


Contact Us

Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge 
B’nai B’rith International 

4605 Lankershim Blvd, Suite 710
Los Angeles, CA 91602

Email: diverseminds@bnaibrith.org 


For media inquires, please contact mediarelations@bnaibrith.org.

If you are with a foundation or corporation that would like more information about sponsoring the Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge in your city, or you are with a non-profit community organization who would like to receive donated books, please contact Melanie Marconi at mmarconi@bnaibrith.org.

Download the 2016 Winning Books


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Washington, D.C. Winner

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New York City Winner

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Southern New Jersey Winner

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Delmarva Winner


Today Show

B’nai B’rith joins Matt Damon in donating Diverse Minds books for a holiday gift drive on The Today Show