About the City Club

The City Club of Cleveland is one of the nation's great free speech forums. A product of the Progressive Era, we were founded in 1912 and are one of the nation's oldest continuous independent free speech forums, renowned for our tradition of debate and discussion. For more than a hundred years, all of our speakers—from sitting presidents to community activists—have answered unfiltered, unrehearsed questions directly from the audience. 

Thank you for participating in the 2025 Hope and Stanley Adelstein Essay Contest!

Please read all the details below regarding the essay prompt and eligibility. For details on judging, please click below for the detailed rubric.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Ariana Smith at arianasmith@cityclub.org. Good luck!