Succeeding in high school and college often requires more than just good grades. Strong social and emotional skills are also important. To highlight this, Aperture Education has launched an essay contest asking high school seniors and college students to write about the non-academic skills that helped them get through high school. The public will vote on the essays and Aperture will choose a winner from the three essays receiving the most votes. This individual will receive a $1,000 college scholarship. Participants must submit their essay by July 31, 2017. For more information or to submit an entry, visit http://www.apertureed.com/funding/scholarship/.

To enter the contest, participants must answer this question in 300 to 400 words:

“What non-academic skill helped you get through high school? How did you acquire this skill (maybe a sports team or a specific event in your life)?  How will you apply this skill to your time in college?”

Qualifying submissions will be posted online on August 4, 2017 and the public will be invited to vote until August 15, 2017 for their favorite.  The essay contest is open to students between the ages of 16 and 22 who are graduating from high school in 2017 or who are freshmen, sophomores or juniors in college.

“Social and emotional skills are so important to a child’s lifelong success,” said Aperture Education CEO Jessica Adamson. “Skills such as being able to make good decisions build healthy relationships and communicate well with peers, co-workers and bosses help students tremendously in high school, college and beyond. We hope this essay contest will get students thinking about these non-academic skills as they look toward the future.”

The essay contest is part of Aperture Education’s ongoing work to support students’ social and emotional health. Aperture Education works with educators, administers and out-of-school-time providers who are implementing social and emotional learning programs within their schools. Aperture Education provides strength-based assessments and resilience-building resources to help organizations address the whole child. Its goal is to ensure members of school and out-of-school time communities, including adults, have the social and emotional skills needed to thrive.

Aperture Education offers products and services to support SEL programs, including Evo Social/Emotional, a K-12 online assessment and intervention tool. It uses the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) to help educators measure students’ SEL skills and implement individualized, classroom and school-wide strategies for instruction and intervention.