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Submission Deadline

11:59 pm Pacific Time, Friday, July 9, 2021

Essay Topic

Each essay should tell the history of a company in the writer’s home city, county, or metropolitan area, within the United States or its territories. The company must be based there, not a branch office or owned by another company. The company must be at least ten years old and have at least ten employees, but may also be much larger.

Essays should tell the story of the organization since its founding, its products or services, how the company evolved, and who leads the company today. The best essays will point up the drama and human-interest aspects of the story. When available, the essays should contain data on the company, such as sales or number of employees and the growth of the company over time.

Essays may contain pictures of the products, factories, offices, and people.

For this first year, we are not accepting the stories of non-profit organizations, though we hope to add that category in future contests.

For complete suggestions on writing the essay, see the “Tips for Essay Writers.”

Eligibility

The contest is open to writers aged 12-18 at some point during the contest period (March 4 – July 9, 2021). Only one submission will be accepted for each essay writer. Writers and the companies whose stories they tell must be located in the United States or its territories, and all submissions should be in English. Any person or organization involved in the operation or judging of the contest and their immediate family members are not eligible for this contest.

Essay Length

Essays must be 1,000-2,000 words in length. Submissions that do not meet this requirement, or that exceed it, will be disqualified.

Deadline

Essays must be submitted no later than 11:59 pm Pacific Time, Friday, July 9, 2021.

Plagiarism

All essays must be the original work of the student whose name is listed on the submission form. Plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification.

Taxes

Winners will be solely responsible for any federal, state, or local taxes on winnings.

Judges

Essays will be judged on their ability to tell the history of a company in an articulate, clear, factual, and engaging manner. Our panel or panels of judges will evaluate essay submissions in a fair and unbiased judging system. Decisions of the judges are final.

Ownership and Use

The ownership of any submission remains the property of the writer, but entry into the competition constitutes the entrant’s permission and consent, without compensation, with or without attribution, for the American Business History Center to use, reproduce, transmit, post, distribute, adapt, edit, and/or display the submission.

Formats

Use the link below to submit your essay.

We accept essay submissions in the following formats:

• Microsoft WORD Document (.Doc, .DocX)
• PDF Document.

For users of Google Docs, use the export function to create one of the above formats (In Google Docs go to File -> Download as -> Microsoft Word).

If you have any problems or questions, please contact us and we will do our best to help.