Submit an original essay, report, eulogy, poem, song, mini-podcast, or mini-documentary profiling the sacrifices, strengths, and legacies of a World War II Veteran who was honorably laid to rest in an NCA national, state, territorial, or tribal Veterans cemetery.
Award Value: $500
Number of Prizes: 10
Eligibility: Students in Grades 6–12
Submission Deadline: 8:00 a.m. ET on Friday, May 3, 2024.
This contest has closed.
Ten $500 Awards
The Gilder Lehrman Institute is hosting a contest to reward outstanding student work as part of our current project supported by the Veterans Legacy Grant Program, World War II: Portraits of Service.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI) has been honored to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) for the past three years to commemorate Veterans and service members interred in VA national cemeteries and VA grant-funded state, territorial, or tribal Veterans cemeteries through the discovery and sharing of their stories.
It is essential to instill a deeper understanding of the service and sacrifice of the WWII generation in young people today. To encourage such understanding, GLI is offering ten $500 awards to students who create a written or audio/visual portrait of a WWII Veterans.
Students in grades 6–12 are eligible. As part of the Portraits of Service contest, students can submit an original essay, report, eulogy, poem, song, mini-podcast, or mini-documentary profiling the sacrifices, strengths, and legacies of a WWII Veteran who was honorably laid to rest in an NCA national, state, territorial, or tribal Veterans cemetery. All participants will receive a certificate of participation suitable for framing when their work is uploaded to the Veterans Legacy Memorial page.
If you have any questions, please email education@gilderlehrman.org.
This contest has closed.
The Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) is the nation’s first digital platform dedicated entirely to the memory of nearly ten million Veterans interred in VA national cemeteries; VA-funded state, tribal, and territory Veteran cemeteries; Department of Defense-managed cemeteries; National Park Service cemeteries; and private cemeteries within and outside the United States.
Currently VLM includes Veterans laid to rest in private cemeteries since 1996 who received a VA-provided headstone, flat marker, niche cover, or medallion.
Students can find a Veteran to research on the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) website
Individual Veteran profile pages are populated with military service and cemetery information.
Publicly available information gathered from VA records includes service branch and seal, dates of birth and death, rank, war period, decorations, emblem of belief, and cemetery information.
Interactive features allow family, friends, and the public to submit Tributes (comments), images, biographical information, and historical documents.
Family, friends, and the public can create their Veteran’s military service and personal achievements timeline; and generate a Word Cloud that describes their Veteran.
The site also allows visitors to share Veteran profile pages by email and post them to social media, and users can “Follow a Veteran” to receive email alerts when new content is added to that Veteran’s page.