Breaking barriers essay contest 2019 winners

Below, you’ll find these eight winning essays, published in full. Scroll to the bottom to see the names of all 35 finalists we’re honoring — eight winners, eight runners-up and 19 honorable mentions. Congratulations, and thank you to everyone who participated!

Using the Purpose Challenge Toolkit, the six winning students wrote and submitted a college admission essay that clearly identified a long-term goal and succinctly articulated why this goal is personally meaningful and will positively contribute to the world at large.

Beyond a caution to write no more than 600 words, our rules were fairly open-ended, and we weren’t sure what we would get. Well, we received over 8,000 entries from teenagers from around the world. We got stories about scoring the winning goal, losing a grandparent, learning to love one’s skin and dealing with mental illness.

While the scholarship contest has ended, the Purpose Challenge Toolkit remains live and offers teens a guide to finding and defining their sense of life purpose. Congratulations to all six winners! Camryn Morrow is a senior creative writing major at The School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati.