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!
ESSAY PROMPT:
In recent years, student protests on various issues have sparked debate over the balance between free speech and institutional authority. In some cases, universities have responded with disciplinary actions such as suspensions or expulsions when students did not comply with warnings to end their protests.
In light of this, think of a current or past example where a student's free speech has been questioned or challenged. Should students be punished for expressing their views, or does free speech protect their right to protest? How much control should schools have over student expression, and where should the limits be drawn?
DEADLINE: Friday, February 14, 2024
ELIGIBILITY: All high school students (9-12th grade) in public, private, parochial, charter, and home schools in Northeast Ohio
GUIDELINES:
- Essays will be judged on their clarity, content, originality, and significance, and by responding to the correct question and required components
- Please use 3 to 5 articles from reliable, valid sources in your essay.
- During the judging process, each entry is assigned a number. Essays are blind-scored by number only; no student, teacher or school names should be identified. Do not include the student name or school name within the body of your essay or the file name. Failure to comply may result in disqualification.
- All first-place winners of each category are invited to read their winning essays at the start of a City Club forum.
AWARDS: 11/12 Grade
- First Place: $1,000
- Second Place: $750
- Third Place: $500
- Honorable Mention: $250
9/10 Grade
- First Place: $500
- Second Place: $250
- Third Place: $150
- Honorable Mention: $100
You can listen to last year's winning essays here.