Congressional Seminar Essay Contest for High School Students

Win the writing competition, win a trip to Washington, D.C., from June 24-28, 2024.

The Congressional Essay Contest is run by NSCDA Corporate Societies and Town Committees across the United States. Sophomore, junior, or senior year high school students submit essays that are then judged and awarded.

The essay topic changes annually. This year the NSCDA asks students to:

“Why did the nation’s founders choose a government with separated powers rather than a parliamentary system?” 

Winners receive full tuition and travel to the Washington Workshops “Congressional Seminar,” a week-long civic-focused adventure in our nation’s capital. The seminar provides two meals daily and an additional per diem, university campus housing and access to world-class museums, government offices, and memorable tours. Are you curious about what to expect on this trip? Click here to check out a past itinerary or watch this 4:30-minute video.

Learn more about the Washington Workshops Foundation.

Students:

To Apply:

Note: Children and grandchildren of an active member of The NSCDA may not receive a scholarship to the Congressional Seminar. They are still eligible to participate. Email Mary Bradshaw, NSCDA Congressional Essay Consultant, at mary_bradshaw@comcast.net for more information.

Teachers:

We look forward to reading your class submissions! Be sure to review the Rules, Information, and Judging Criteria. Consider hanging our poster in your room or digital pinboard.

Encourage your students to complete and submit their applications.

Email Mary Bradshaw, NSCDA Congressional Essay Consultant, at mary_bradshaw@comcast.net for more information or if you have any questions.

Recent Contest Winners:

  • Jackson Peleg (2024); New York Harbor School

  • Sonja Aibel (2023); Brooklyn Technical High School

  • Jensen Herbst (2022); Smithtown High School West

  • Owen Shin (2021); Blair Academy

  • Estella Pettus (2020); The Chapin School

  • Heidi Horowitz (2019); The Chapin School

  • Ashwin Prabaharan (2019); The Urban Assembly Academy of Government and Law

Annual CUNY Graduate Center Educational Award

For 55 years, the NSCDNY has worked with CUNY graduate programs to provide sizable scholarships to graduate students of American history, with a preference, when possible, for those studying colonial American history.

“The scholarship provided by the National Society of Colonial Dames made an incredible impact on my academic career. As a historian the time I spend in the archive is invaluable and I was able to travel throughout New York State for research due to their generous funding. ”
— Laura Ping, scholarship recipient
Members of the board with CUNY students and faculty

Members of the board with CUNY students and faculty

Past Scholarship Recipients

  • Madeline DeDe-Panken, 2022-2023, Dissertation: “Gathering Knowledge: Sustenance, Science and the Woman Mushroom Hunter in American Culture, 1880-1930.”

  • Maayan Brodsky, 2021-2022, Dissertation: “Questionable Intelligence: Richard Nixon’s Espionage Organization.”

  • Amanda Westbrook Brennan, 2020-2021, Dissertation: “The History of Having It All: Women and Work-Life Balance from 1890-Today.”

  • Erik Wallenberg, 2019-2020, Dissertation: “Staging Nature: Social Movement Theater and Environmental Crises, 1962- 1989”

  • Mariam Liebman, 2018-2019, Dissertation: “A Tale of Two Cities: American Women in Paris and London, 1780-1815”

  • Brendan Cooper, 2017-2018, Dissertation: “The Domino Effect: Government Policy, the Tariff and the Politics of Sugar Refining 1789-1902”

  • Michael Crowder, 2016-2017, Dissertation: “Defining the Boundaries of Slavery: Northern Abolitionism, Economic Development, and the Politics and Legalities of the North American Slave Trade, 1763-1833”

  • Benjamin Hellwege, 2015-2016, Dissertation: “When Old Age Changed:  Inventing the Senior State, 1945-80"

  • Sean Griffin, 2015-2016, Dissertation: “Labor, Land Reform and the Politics of Antislavery, 1820-1862”

  • Laura Ping, 2014-2015, Dissertation: "Throwing off the Drapery:  Women and the Bloomer Costume, 1820-1900."

  • Katherine (Logan) M. McBride, 2013-2014, Dissertation: "Every Day a Captive: Inmates, Officers, and New York's Crisis in Correction, 1955-1995"

  • Thomas W. Hafer, 2012-2013, Dissertation: "Art, Sexuality, and Identity in New York, 1930-1975"

  • Lauren Santangelo, 2011-2012, Dissertation: "The “Feminized” City:  New York and Suffrage, 1870 – 1917"

  • Rachel Ann Burstein, 2011-2012, Dissertation: "Public Relations Strategies of Labor Unions in the late 1940s and 1950s"

  • Thomas F. Harbison, 2010-2011, Dissertation: "The Politics of Public Education in Harlem, 1910-1960"

  • Susan Craig, 2009-2010, Dissertation: "Theology in Early Film"

  • David Hamilton Golland, 2008-2009, Dissertation: "Affirmative Action from the Ground Up: Race, Class and Politics in the Building Construction Trades, 1955-1975"

  • Kristopher Burrell, 2007-2008, Dissertation: "The Role of Ideology in the Black Freedom Struggle in New York City, 1954-1965"

  • Leyla Mei, 2006-2007, "Cancer and the Making of Racial Knowledge in the US, 1930-1970"

  • Laura M. Chmielewski, 2005-2006, "Christyan Subjects Taken by Fforce of Arms: Captivity, Religious Culture, and Family on the Maine Frontier, 1689-1727"