Submit an original essay, report, eulogy, poem, song, mini-podcast, or mini-documentary profiling the sacrifices, strengths, and legacies of a World War II Veteran who was honorably laid to rest in an NCA national, state, territorial, or tribal Veterans cemetery.
Award Value: $500
Number of Prizes: 10
Eligibility: Students in Grades 6–12
Submission Deadline: 8:00 a.m. ET on Friday, May 3, 2024
Ten $500 Awards
The Gilder Lehrman Institute is hosting a contest to reward outstanding student work as part of our current project supported by the Veterans Legacy Grant Program, World War II: Portraits of Service.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI) has been honored to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) for the past three years to commemorate Veterans and service members interred in VA national cemeteries and VA grant-funded state, territorial, or tribal Veterans cemeteries through the discovery and sharing of their stories.
It is essential to instill a deeper understanding of the service and sacrifice of the WWII generation in young people today. To encourage such understanding, GLI is offering ten $500 awards to students who create a written or audio/visual portrait of a WWII Veterans.
Students in grades 6–12 are eligible. As part of the Portraits of Service contest, students can submit an original essay, report, eulogy, poem, song, mini-podcast, or mini-documentary profiling the sacrifices, strengths, and legacies of a WWII Veteran who was honorably laid to rest in an NCA national, state, territorial, or tribal Veterans cemetery. All participants will receive a certificate of participation suitable for framing when their work is uploaded to the Veterans Legacy Memorial page.
If you have any questions, please email education@gilderlehrman.org.
The Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) is the nation’s first digital platform dedicated entirely to the memory of nearly ten million Veterans interred in VA national cemeteries; VA-funded state, tribal, and territory Veteran cemeteries; Department of Defense-managed cemeteries; National Park Service cemeteries; and private cemeteries within and outside the United States.
Currently VLM includes Veterans laid to rest in private cemeteries since 1996 who received a VA-provided headstone, flat marker, niche cover, or medallion.
Students can find a Veteran to research on the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) website
Individual Veteran profile pages are populated with military service and cemetery information.
Publicly available information gathered from VA records includes service branch and seal, dates of birth and death, rank, war period, decorations, emblem of belief, and cemetery information.
Interactive features allow family, friends, and the public to submit Tributes (comments), images, biographical information, and historical documents.
Family, friends, and the public can create their Veteran’s military service and personal achievements timeline; and generate a Word Cloud that describes their Veteran.
The site also allows visitors to share Veteran profile pages by email and post them to social media, and users can “Follow a Veteran” to receive email alerts when new content is added to that Veteran’s page.
Who can submit: Students in grades 6–12 can submit a project. A teacher or a parent/guardian can submit the student-produced project to the award website on the student’s behalf.
Topics/Theses: Submissions must focus on the WWII service of an individual who is interred in an NCA, federal, state, or tribal cemetery, and promote their legacy through the use of primary and secondary sources. Service members who served in auxiliary roles are included in the contest.
Submission formats: Students can submit an original essay, report, eulogy, poem, song, mini-podcast, or mini-documentary.
Word Count: Submissions must be approximately 250–400 words in length. (This word count does not include the title, footnotes/endnotes, or bibliography.)
Framework for judging: Projects will be judged on quality of historical research and analysis and clarity of approach.
Font and Page Style: Submissions must be written in Times New Roman, 12-point font with one-inch margins at the top, bottom, and sides. Essays must be free of teacher comments/corrections or other notes.
Primary Sources: Submissions must integrate primary source documents pertaining to World War II and the service of the featured individual.
Secondary sources: Top projects will use scholarly secondary sources, not textbooks.
Citations: The best submissions will have clear, complete, and consistent citations. Students must document their sources and evidence using any one of the following formats: MLA, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style/Turabian. Online sources must be cited using creator/author, title, and publisher as well as URLs.
Bibliography: Each submission is required to include a bibliography listing all sources, dividing the bibliography between primary and secondary sources.
Length: Works should be at least 8–10 lines.
Framework for judging: The poem/song must provide a rich and detailed description of a Veteran and engage in reflection/analysis of their service.
Organization: Works should follow an internal logic and structure.
Bibliography: Each submission is required to include a separate bibliography listing all sources, dividing the bibliography between primary and secondary sources.
Length: Productions must be approximately 2–4 minutes in length.
Primary Sources: Productions must integrate primary source documents pertaining to the history of World War II, including audio-based and/or image sources (archival audio and/or photographs). Top submissions will draw upon primary sources to highlight Veteran service.
Secondary sources: Top productions will use scholarly secondary sources, not textbooks.
Organization: Top productions will have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end.
Citations: Students must provide full citations of all sources. The NPR Ethics Handbook offers a good introduction to how best to cite audio sources.
Bibliography: Each submission is required to include a separate bibliography listing all sources, dividing the bibliography between primary and secondary sources.
For assistance identifying Veterans and conducting research, students can use Activity Sheet #11 from the “Veterans Explain Why They Served” lesson plan. The activity sheet provides a few research tips and suggests websites that could prove useful for researching service members’ stories.
Students, teachers, or parents can submit student entries here by 8:00 a.m. EST on Friday, May 3, 2024, to be considered for the Portraits of Service Awards.
A panel of individuals familiar with the award will review the entries. The winners will be determined by Gilder Lehrman Institute and National Cemetery Administration staff. Entries will be evaluated for their depth of research, use of primary sources, historical integrity, and quality of writing and production. Students’ work will be reviewed and judged at their respective grade levels. Winners will be notified in late May and announced on Memorial Day 2024.
We encourage students to share their Veteran biographies with their local communities. Examples include presentations at their schools, town hall meetings, local historical societies and local VFWs, regional news groups, etc. We highly encourage students to submit their work on the Veterans Legacy Memorial website.