The New York Times Learning Network Contest: Connect What You’re Studying in School With the World Today

The New York Times hosts different contests every year as an essential part of its mission of “teaching and learning with The New York Times.” Via essays, editorials, political cartoons, photography, videos, poetry, podcasts or culture reviews, NYT aims to hear from teenagers around the world on the issues and ideas of the day.

Since 2018, some of our winning student work has been featured in print in a new quarterly Times education section.

Connect What You’re Studying in School With the World Today

So you’re studying the Civil War — or Shakespeare, or evolution, or “The Bluest Eye.”

Why? What does it have to do with your life and the lives of those around you? Why should you remember it once you’ve turned in that paper or taken that test?

What relevance does it have today? What lessons can you learn from it that can be applied to the world outside of school? What parallels do you see between it and something happening in our culture or the news?

Although your teachers probably pose questions like these already, this challenge invites you to answer them a little more formally.

Essentially, we’re asking you to do what we do every day: connect what’s in The New York Times with what you’re learning in school.

In this contest, we invite students to address those questions by matching something they are studying in school to anything they like that was published in The Times in 2019 or 2020, and tell us why they made the connection.

For more information visit the official website here.

3/5

In 2018, over 1,200 students submitted works — 8 winners, 17 runner-ups, 8 Honorable Mentions

2/5

3/5

Rubric here.

2/5

Online submission form