Race Discrimination Commissioner's Student Prize 2017

The Race Discrimination Commissioner's Student Prize is an annual competition for school students aimed to promote research and discussion of racism among young people.

Entries close 15 September 2017.

Who can enter

Students in Years 10 and 11 at a school in any Australian state or territory are eligible to enter.

What do entrants need to do

Entrants may write an essay (maximum 1,000 words) or record a speech (video or audio, maximum 5 minutes) and submit it to the Commission via the entry form by 15 September 2017.

Entrants must answer one of the following questions:

The best way of killing ugliness is with kindness. To what extent should this guide our society's response to racism? Fighting racism demands that we also defend liberal democracy. Discuss.

Enter the competition

Promotion

A promotional poster for the Student Prize is available for download here .

Schools can print these off and display them to spread the word about the Prize.

Prize and judging

The winning student will be awarded a book voucher from Dymocks worth $150.00. Their work will also be featured on the Commission's website and in the Commissioner's monthly newsletter.

The winning student's school will be awarded a book voucher from Dymocks worth $500.00.

The best entry will be selected by the Race Discrimination Commissioner and the winner will be awarded their prize at the Annual Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture in Sydney in October 2017.

Terms and Conditions of Entry

Last year's winner

The winner of the inaugural Student Prize was Mohamed Semra, a Year 11 student from Maribyrnong College, in Victoria.

Mohamed reflected on the question 'Ignorance is the root of racism' and discussed his experience growing up in Sudan and in Melbourne. You can read more here.

Mohamed Semra winning the Race Discrimination Commissioner's Student Prize, presented by Dr Tim Soutphommasane