The 2023 Paideia Institute High School Essay Contest

For High School Students–Win a Trip to Italy or Greece!

The Paideia Institute is pleased to announce its sixth annual high school essay contest for 2023. We will publish the winning essays in In Medias Res, and the winners will receive a full scholarship to either the Paideia Institute’s Living Latin in Rome High School Program or Paideia’s Living Greek in Greece High School Program.

This year’s topic is:

In the Odyssey, Odysseus summons the shades from the underworld and listens to the tales of the dead. If you could get a chance to hear the stories of one, two, or three people from Ancient Greece or Rome, asking them whatever questions you wished, whom would you choose and why?

There will be two prizes. Applicants wishing to study in the Living Greek in Greece program should write about people from Ancient Greece, and applicants for the Living Latin in Rome program should write about people from Ancient Rome.

Essays are due on March 15th, 2023 (beware the Ides!), and should be between 750 and 1200 words. Please send all essays in .pdf format to [email protected]. Submissions should include the student’s name, the name of their high school, their grade level, and the name of their Latin or Greek teacher. To win the scholarship, students need to meet the prerequisites for the intended program; please see the prerequisites for the Latin program here and the Greek program here.

For examples of previous winning essays (on different topics), please look at the following links: “Agnodice, M.D.” by Gianna Beck (2019); “Catiline — The Musical” by Annika Reff (2019); “‘Away Hector Fled in Fear’: Homer’s Humanization of War,” by Kimberley Montpelier (2018); “The Wisdom of a Former Slave,” by Clare Pavlides (2018); “The Power of the Poet,” by Charlotte Skolasky (2017); and “On the Importance of Classics,” by Carl Anderson (2016).