Westminster University Civility Essay Contest

Prompt: When this contest began ten years ago, Americans were already worried that political division was tearing the country apart. A decade later, after a presidential election, ongoing debates over free speech and political violence, and a year of sharp disagreement over the role of government itself, that worry has only grown. Drawing on your own experience over the past year, write an essay (600 words or fewer) that identifies one specific issue where you believe Americans are losing the ability to talk to one another, takes a position on what is making that conversation so hard, and argues what your generation must learn to do — and to stop doing — to make constructive disagreement possible again.

Essays must be your own original work; submissions identified as AI-generated will be disqualified.