AFSA National High School Essay Scholarship

Over the course of its 250-year history, the United States has projected leadership abroad through a mix of hard and soft power. At the center of this effort has been the U.S. Foreign Service, the nation’s professional diplomatic corps, which carries out U.S. foreign policy and advances American interests overseas. From negotiating peace agreements and managing crises to fostering long-term alliances, the Foreign Service is the front-line institution of American diplomacy.

Soft power is how a country attracts and persuades others without force. It includes culture (music, films, books), educational and professional exchanges, independent, fact-based news, and development and disaster aid. These tools help the United States build trust and lasting relationships.

In 2025, those tools took a significant hit. The U.S. Agency for International Development was dismantled; the U.S. Agency for Global Media (home to Voice of America) was effectively closed; most exchange programs, including Fulbright, were suspended; and the Foreign Service itself was cut by about 25 percent. How can the United States build and sustain relationships without these efforts?

In 1,000 to 1,500 words, make a case for one of two positions: either explain how the United States can maintain global leadership without these tools, or argue that it cannot and why.

In either direction, focus on the role of the U.S. Foreign Service with fewer people and fewer tools. If you believe leadership can be sustained, lay out clear, realistic steps diplomats could take to achieve their goals. If you believe it cannot, show where capacity would fall short, which risks would rise, and what costs would follow.

Welcome to AFSA's high school essay contest submissions’ page! Here you’ll find all the essential information for submitting your entry, including formatting guidelines, submission requirements, and deadlines. Keep in mind that only those students whose parents are not in the Foreign Service are eligible to submit.

If you plan on entering the contest, be sure to follow the instructions closely. Any submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will be automatically disqualified.

Eligibility

This contest is open to high school students in grades 9-12 who meet the following criteria:

• You must be attending school in any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, or be a U.S. citizen/lawful permanent resident attending high school overseas.
• You may attend a public, private, or parochial school. Home-schooled students are also welcome to participate.
• Previous first-place winners and immediate family members of AFSA, Semester at Sea, and National Student Leadership Conference directors or staff are not eligible. However, if you’ve received an honorable mention or been a runner-up in the past, you are still eligible to enter.

Word Count

• Your essay must be between 1,000 and 1,500 words. The word count does not include your list of sources.
• Essays that do not meet the required word count will not be considered.
• When submitting your essay, be sure to include the word count on your submission.

Deadline

• March 1 by 11:59 p.m. EDT. Any submissions we receive after this time will be automatically disqualified. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Content and Style Guidelines

• Entries must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font with a one-inch margin on all sides of the page.
• Your essay should follow the content and style rules from the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and should include a bibliography. Criteria include:
  1. Proper citation of sources.
  2. Correct formatting for your list of works cited.
  3. Following MLA rules for margins and indentation.
• Your essay should draw from a variety of sources such as academic journals, news magazines, newspapers, books, government documents, and publications from research organizations. Make sure at least three of your sources are primary—documents, speeches, or materials created during the time you're studying.
• As the prompt specifies, you must cite The Foreign Service Journal's 40th anniversary edition at least once.
• General encyclopedias (like Wikipedia) are not acceptable sources. If you use them, your essay will be disqualified.
• Websites shouldn’t be your only source. If you do use online sources, make sure they’re properly cited.

How to Submit Your Essay

• Fill out the registration form. All fields on the online form are required, including uploading a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file of your original work with a title. You must also include a comprehensive list of sources consulted. And don’t forget to include the word count of your essay in the submission.
• Registration forms must have a teacher or sponsor name. That person may review the submitted essay and act as the key contact between participants and AFSA. It is to the student’s advantage to have a coordinator review the essay to make sure it is complete, contains all the necessary forms, is free from typographical and grammatical errors, and addresses the topic.
• Do not place your last name or your school's name on any of the pages of the essay. Only the registration form should include this information.
• Do include the word count of your essay as part of the submission.

Video Submission Guidance

• To counter the use of AI in contests like this, we’re asking each student to include a brief on-camera video submission along with his or her essay.
• Videos must be no shorter than 30 seconds and no longer than 1 minute. You must answer the following questions in your video:
  • State your name at the beginning of your video.
  • Why was this topic of interest to you?
  • Why did you participate in this contest?
  • Give a brief overview of your essay and what you learned.
• Videos must be uploaded to YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, or Google Drive. Make sure your video is not set to Private and that judges will be able to view it through a URL link. You may set it to “Unlisted” on YouTube.
• Submissions that do not meet these requirements will be disqualified.

Judging & Criteria

• Your essay will be evaluated based on the depth of analysis, quality of research, and the clarity of writing, including style and mechanics.
• To be successful, your essay must fully address every part of the prompt and show a strong understanding of the Foreign Service.
• All qualifying essays will go through several rounds of blind judging, meaning the judges won’t know the identity of the writers.
• The judges' decisions are final.

Prizes

• Winner: The winner receives $2,500; a trip (airfare + hotel for student, one parent, and his/her teacher) to Washington, D.C. to meet with diplomatic officials at the U.S. Department of State; and a fully funded educational voyage with Semester at Sea.
• Runner-up: The runner-up receives $1,250 and a full scholarship to attend the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program during a summer session.

Please note that once submitted, your essay becomes the property of the American Foreign Service Association and will not be returned.