Voice of Democracy Program-2012-2013

Voice of Democ­racy Program-2012–2013

Spon­sored by V.F.W. Post 4329 and Aux­il­iary of Galion

Eligibility-Students in grades 9–12

Theme-Is Our Con­sti­tu­tion Still Relevant?

Deadline-November 1, 2012

Local Judg­ing –Novem­ber 8, 2012 at 6 p.m. at the Post home

First Place Win­ner goes to Dis­trict Competition

Local Awards

1st $100.00

2nd $75.00

3rd $50.00

Local Awards Pre­sen­ta­tion will be fourth Tues­day of Feb­ru­ary 2013

What Is The Voice Of Democ­racy Program?

Since 1947, the Voice of Democ­racy has been the Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars’ (VFW’s) pre­mier schol­ar­ship pro­gram. Each year, more than 50,000 high school stu­dents com­pete for more than $2.3 mil­lion in schol­ar­ships and incen­tives. Stu­dents com­pete by writ­ing and record­ing a broad­cast script on an annual patri­otic theme. This year’s theme is, Is Our Con­sti­tu­tion Still Relevant?

Why Should I Enter?

Prizes and schol­ar­ships are awarded at the local, dis­trict, state and national level. Depart­ment (State) win­ners receive an all-expense paid trip to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., March 2–6, 2013, to tour the city, meet our nation’s lead­ers be hon­ored by the VFW and its Ladies Aux­il­iary and receive their por­tion of $152,000 in national awards, the top schol­ar­ship being $30,000.

The Rules

Who can enter?

The Voice of Democ­racy is open to stu­dents in grade 9–12, who are enrolled in a pub­lic, pri­vate or parochial high school or home study pro­gram in the United States, its ter­ri­to­ries and pos­ses­sions; or in an over­seas U.S. military/civilian depen­dent school. For­eign exchange stu­dents, stu­dents age 20 or over and pre­vi­ous Voice of Democ­racy first place state win­ners are ineligible.

What do I need to enter?

Record your orig­i­nal 3–5 minute (+ or — 5 sec­onds max.) essay on a stan­dard cas­sette tape or CD. One stu­dent per CD or cas­sette. Pre­ferred for­mat for CD’s is the audio CD for­mat. When burn­ing your CD, make sure that “Crete Audio CD” option (or sim­i­lar) is selected so the pro­gram can prop­erly con­vert your sound file and burn it to CD. After it has fin­ished, be sure to play back your audio CD on a sys­tem other than your com­puter, such as a stan­dard radio or car CD player, to ver­ify that the conversion/burning process was suc­cess­ful. Label the record­ing, neatly typed essay and attach this com­pleted entry form. Pro­vide these items to your school/group com­pe­ti­tion or local VFW Post for judg­ing. All record­ings must be in your own voice. Hearing/speech impaired stu­dents should con­tact the Voice of Democ­racy National Office at (816) 968‑1117 for spe­cial instructions.

No music, singing, poetry or sound effects are allowed. The body of the essay must not iden­tify you in any way, althought the record­ing & typed essay should be labeled with your name, to show own­er­ship You many enter only one Voice of Democ­racy com­petion per year.

Where do I sub­mit my entry?

All entries begin at the Post level. The only excep­tion is where schools/classes /youth groups have large num­bers of stu­dents and wish to con­duct their own com­pe­ti­tion, sub­mit­ting one win­ner for each 15 stu­dents to the local VFW Post com­pe­ti­tion. Indi­vid­ual stu­dents may sub­mit their entry directly to the Post pro­vid­ing they have not com­peted at a school/class competion.

One win­ner for every 15 entries from each Post advances to Dis­trict and one Dis­trict win­ner advances to the state (Depart­ment) com­pe­ti­tion. State win­ners are invited to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. where their essays com­pete in the finals competition.

If you need help find­ing a par­tic­i­pat­ing VFW Post in your area, call (816) 968‑1117, e-mail to kharmer@vfw.org or visit or web­site at www.vfw.org.

What is the dead­line for my entry?

All entries com­pet­ing at the Post level must be in the hands of that VFW Post by mid­night, Nov. 1, 2012. It is the respon­si­bil­ity of the stu­dent to meet this dead­line by sub­mit­ting their entry to the proper loca­tion by ensur­ing it is a par­tic­i­pat­ing Post.

What Are The Judg­ing Criteria?

Orig­i­nal­ity is worth 30 points: Treat­ment of the theme should show imag­i­na­tion and human interest.

Con­tent is worth 35 points: Clearly express your ideas in an orga­nized maner. Fully develop your theme and use tran­si­tions to move smoothly from one idea to another.

Deliv­ery is worth 35 points: Speak in a clear and cred­i­ble manner.

The Impact Of The Voice Of Democracy

National final­ist Stephanie D’Abruzzo Shemin is a grad­u­ate of North­west­ern Uni­ver­sity in Speech and a per­former with the Jim Hen­son Company’s Mup­pets. “What VOD did was pre­pare me for col­lege and the real world. I saw how I could find my place in this world.”

Past national win­ner Dr. Gary Belkin is a psy­chi­a­trist and ethi­cist at Har­vard and Brown Med­ical Schools. “The whole Voice of Democ­racy pro­gram was an expe­ri­ence that is still with me.: The National Asso­ci­a­tion of Sec­ondary School Prin­ci­pals (NASSP) has again approved this con­test for its National Advi­sory List of Con­tests and Activities.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion: Con­tact Mil­lie Humphrey at 419–468-3801 or Dee Eusey 567–876-2985

Posted by Staff Reports on Oct 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.