AEL Collegiate Essay Contest

Pepperdine Libraries is pleased to facilitate an annual essay contest for U.S. college students. Americanism Educational Leaders, which supports this scholarship, strives to provide students with opportunities to discover, understand, and appreciate some aspect of the American experience. Stay tuned for the details on the 2024 scholarship.

The eligibility requirements are as follows: 

• Must be a U.S. citizen.
• Must be a current undergraduate college or university student in an accredited four-year U.S. college or university. Incoming first-year students (i.e., high school seniors) and college students who graduate the year of the competition are eligible to apply. 

Essay Guidelines

• Since this is an academic paper, cited sources are expected. You may use MLA or Chicago formatting.

• The essay length is a minimum of 5 pages and a maximum of 8 pages (approximately 1,500-2,000 words), using a standard font set to 12-point with double-spacing and 1-inch margins.  

• A bibliography does not count towards or against the page length requirement.

• Essays will be judged on the following criteria: 

  1. Is there a clear thesis statement?

  2. Does the essay body support the thesis?

  3. Does the author support major claims with proper citation?

  4. Does the author address the essay prompt?

  5. Was a variety of authoritative sources used?

  6. Literary style and grammar.

Submission Instructions

• Applications will only be accepted via a Google Form. Prospective applicants will need to sign into a Google account to access the application. Don't have a Google account? Sign up for free here: https://accounts.google.com/Signup. 
• Complete applications must be submitted by the deadline. Incomplete entries will be disqualified. 
• Essays will only be accepted in PDF format, attached to application. Do not include your name within the document. Name the file using your application ID, which is your phone number without spaces, hyphens, or parentheses (ex., "3105551234.pdf").
• Failure to follow these requirements will result in disqualification.