For Immediate Release:  Boston GLOW Announces Second Annual IGNITE Change Essay Contest

September 1, 2011 – Boston, MA.  Boston GLOW (Girls’ Leadership, Organized Women), announced the topic and guidelines for their second annual IGNITE Change essay contest this week.  The non-profit organization, founded in 2010, seeks foster opportunities for women of all ages to become empowered community leaders and active world citizens.  Last year’s essay contest garnered a significant response from female students in public and charter schools across the Greater Boston area.  The ten finalists received over $10,000 in scholarship prizes.

This year, Boston GLOW leaders sought to make the essay question more personal:  “What can women and girls in your city, community or school do to IGNITE Change?”

“We wanted to encourage young writers to think more about the role of females in their communities,” explained IGNITE Change coordinator AC Gaughen.  “We wanted them to reflect on and express actionable opportunities for women and girls to provoke positive change.”

The contest opened September 1, 2011, and closes January 16, 2012.  This year, GLOW has integrated a series of writing workshops to be held in three Boston area schools.  “The goal of the workshops is to encourage female students to write outside the classroom,” explained GLOW founder Leah Moschella, “and to work with them one-on-one to further develop their creative and essay writing skills.” 

Workshops will begin with a short introduction to the basics of creative or essay writing taught by a published young adult author from the Boston area.  Students will then share their work in an open forum and afterward, work one-on-one with a workshop volunteer to revise their work.

“This enables us to build relationships with aspiring writers in order to build their confidence and promote the contest opportunity early on,” said AC Gaughen.  “Last year, we saw that many students didn’t believe they could ever win a contest like this – our approach this time around hopes to curb that defeatist mentality.” 

For contest description, rules and more information, please visit www.bostonglow.org.

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