We’re pleased to announce that the second Yakezie Writing Contest is now live! We are expanding the applicant pool to include college students who are paying the majority of their tuition on their own in addition to high school students or younger. The first contest was a success thanks to all of you, and we’d like to continue the tradition all year. The first place winner will receive $600, second place will receive $300, and the third place essay will receive $100.
After the second contest, we plan to change the way we raise and distribute money after this round. What we plan to do in the short run is create a Pledge Page on Yakezie.com where you can submit your name or site and pledge amount during each contest. Your pledge is your bond as one’s social capital is fast becoming one of the most important currencies. With a Pledge Page, no money goes through Yakezie.com and will go straight to the winners as a gift. As a reminder, ALL money that was sent to Yakezie.com for the first and second contest has been and will be 100% donated. We don’t take any of your contributions for ourselves.
Our #1 goal is to help our Yakezie Scholars further their education and contribute positive change to the community. If you are an individual or corporation who would like to be a sponsor/partner, we’d love to hear from you via e-mail. Without further ado, may we present the second list of Yakezie Writing Contest questions.
The Second Yakezie Writing Contest Questions (CHOOSE ONE ONLY)
* Tell us about a world event that had a profound impact on you. What changed in you for the better? What changed in you for the worse? Why couldn’t you realize the better changes before the event happened? Why did an event have to happen in order for you to see the world a little differently?
* If you won a $20 million dollar lottery, who would be the first person you’d call? Would you call anybody? Describe in detail what you would do with the money. How long do you think your happiness from winning the lottery will last? Why do you think so many wealthy athletes and other famous figures go broke?
* Do you believe in second chances or even third chances? Please explain why. Is there an extent to how bad an act you do before there are no more second chances? Tell us about a second chance you got or did not get. What have you changed about yourself to make you a better person?
* What are the attributes that makes someone a success? What does success mean to you? Describe a time where you thought you were successful, but in reality, it turned into a failure. What were the lessons learned? Do we really need to focus on success to be happy? Can we be happy without being successful?
Length: 700-1000 words.
Target demographic: College students who are paying for the majority of their tuition out of their own pocket, through loans, or with scholarships. High school students or below who are looking for money to pay for college or buy school related items.
Number of finalists to be published: Up to 10 to be published if there are up to 20 applicants. If there are more than 20 applicants, we will publish the best 30 and run a concurrent Contest and Member Article schedule on Yakezie.com for the month.
Deadline for submission: Saturday, January 22th at 6pm EST.
How to submit: Click here to apply.
TIPS FOR APPLICANTS:
* Do submit early and provide all pertinent detail, including a picture of yourself. Please write a short bio about yourself and what makes you tick at the end of your essay submission. The more the reader gets to know you, the better.
* Encourage your friends and family to visit the competition and vote. To be fair, please have them vote for all participants. Part of success is how well you market yourself. This is an important skill you will need in college and in the work force. Others inevitably will market themselves, so you might as well too. The Yakezie Members have a 3X vote weighting and will also vote to ensure fair play. At the end, we will tally up the non-Member votes vs. the Member votes and see if there are any inconsistencies. With hundreds of people voting, generally the discrepancies should be minimal and the best written essays that connect with readers should receive the most votes.
* Tell us a story. The best essays are those that capture the imagination of the reader and allows us to feel what you are going through. Make us want to root for you!
* Think about a unique title that is pertinent to your essay. Also try and think about what your other applicants will be writing about and perhaps do something different. This is called leveling, another useful skill to learn.
* Do check for punctuation and grammar. Ask your friends, parents, or teachers to read your essay and provide suggestions. Often times we are blind by what we write and cannot see obvious errors without the help of others.
* Applicants should feel free to interact with reader comments once their posts are live. It shows that you are listening and are a part of the community. The Yakezie is all about community interaction. Notice how all three winners responded back to comments. The more you respond to readers, the higher the likelihood they will warm to you.
* Follow us @Yakezie on Twitter because we do highlight multiple updates throughout the competition that you may want to be aware of.
* Here’s the post on determining the number of contest winners for your recap.
How to submit: Click here to apply.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Essays which do not comply with the directions (700-1000 words, properly formatted, relevant information, and contact info will not be eligible to compete). If you are one of the 30 finalists, we will contact you for a picture if you wish to send one. Please also don’t forget to SAVE your draft just in case it does not go through. Any problems uploading, try deleting your cache on your browser and refreshing.
If you are having trouble registering and getting a confirmation e-mail, that is because Google hit a limit of 200 e-mails sent per day. We are working on manually reconfirming your registration. Once you get that confirmation e-mail, please apply and submit your essay.
All applicants must subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date.
Thanks again!
Sam, Chris, Jennifer & The Yakezie Writing Contest Committee
Looking forward to reading the new essays. The first scholarship had some really great reads.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kevin. Kevin said: RT @Yakezie: The Second Yakezie Scholarship Is Now Live! http://t.co/Kn0XBXi -> Submissions will be accepted until January 22, 6pm. # … […]
Excellent! I’m looking forward to reading the posts as well!
I’m looking forward to the next batch as well. Any updates on the privacy policy page? As soon as that is live, FastWeb.com will list it as one of their scholarships. Let me know!
Thanks for the reminder. Chris knows, however he’s tied up this weekend. I’m sure he’ll get to it, and if not, I will put one up in a Page Sunday evening. Thnx.
I can’t wait for the next round. Thanks for including college students! They have it rough sometimes!
[…] The Second Yakezie Scholarship Is Now Live! The Yakezie launches its second Scholarship initiative to college students who are paying their […]
[…] Yakezie Personal Finance Bloggers group is hosting its second Yakezie Scholarship. The first one was an enormous success and we’re predicting this one will be as well. […]
I had a lot of fun entering the first scholarship contest and reading all the essays. I am looking forward to reading the essays that people submit for this second contest too. I think it is very generous for the Yakezie community to offer students the opportunity to win money for school. Thanks again and good luck to those entering the scholarship contest.
Awesome! I love the scholarship questions. There will be some great stories. I think it’s so great you’re helping students too. I had scholarships during both high school and college and it really helped me and my parents out a lot.
The last round of stories will be tough to beat!
[…] second Yakezie scholarship is now open for application. This time the applicant pool expanded to college students as well as […]
Looking forward to the entrants!
P.S. picture appears to be broken
[…] for the best comment. Contest ends on January 22, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST (same time as when the second Scholarship ends). Winners will be announced within 7 days after the end of the contest. Winners will be […]
Wow- bigger and better! $1000 is a great prize!
It’s amazing how every little bit adds up to something great! Sam, should we stop our auto-donations?
The key thing is semantics by Paypal. If there is the word “donation” in the Paypal auto-pay, then it will be flagged. Instead, best to change it to “educational support” or something. It’s up to you.
After this round, we will use the Pledge Page. If there is an auto education pledge, then we can always list that blogger/person’s name.
Totally looking forward to this. I love being part of a community that puts its money where its mouth is and even the small amounts that I can give adds up to help someone else. Beats going to McDonald’s.
What an awesome photo! I can’t believe how quickly this is building, already heading towards being a legit charity! I’m going to up my pledge from next month too. When debt is gone later this year I will be doubling that again I hope.
Go Yakezie!!!!
Pretty neat picture huh? We’re going the Pledge Page route in the subsequent Scholarships b/c we can’t channel the donations as a non-profit organization according to Paypal until we register as a charity, which we will not be. The Scholarship initiative is a part of Yakezie, but it is not the entire Yakezie. Hence, instead of using the word “charity”, I would just say “organization.”
[…] but not least is that the second Yakezie scholarship is now accepting applications. If you are or know someone who are in college or preparing for it, […]
Help please, I’m putting up a scholarship promotion post tomorrow on MLK day and want a link to the “donate” button for the scholarship. Where is it?
Took it down because we are not a non-profit organization, and only non-profit organizations can accept donations according to Paypal. What I suggest instead is for you to be the keeper for your readers who want to support the kids. Cheers
This is my absolute favorite part of being in the Yakezie – helping others. This Scholarship program is growing and I’m excited to see where it continues from here.
I have no idea how to submit my essay for this scholarship but I have it all written and I would really like to enter. Can anyone explain to me how? Thanks!
Kali
Hi! I just joined Yakezie for the second scholarship competition, but I cannot find the scholarship tag that you reference. When I clicked “apply” on the post about the scholarship, I was redirected to a page that said that I hadn’t logged in. I then logged in and was brought to my profile. I looked on both my profile and my dashboard and there is no scholarship button. I think I clicked the “apply” button five or six times after that just to make sure, but I keep on getting redirected to the page that asks me to log in.
I am not that tech-savvy, so if you could please help me and kakisch11, that would be great!! :)
Hmmm, weird. Yes, you need to register and login. Then you go and click the
“How to submit: Click here to apply” in the post, or click the SUBMIT AN ESSAY link up top which should bring you to the two page application process.
Let us know if that doesn’t work. I can’t get a hold of my webmaster, so I will do my best to try and work out the kinks for you.
When you click this: http://yakezie.com/submit-a-scholarship/ does it not work? Thnx
The website is being very annoying because I log in and then try to submit the scholarship essay but is keeps saying “Error: Not Logged In.” Please help me and thank you.
Will check. Please try and refresh/delete cache.
For those of you who are having trouble registering or applying, apologies. If you have an essay that is fully done, 700-1000 words, formatted, and addresses one of the questions, and can’t upload it, please just keep it for now until we fix the problem.
Try refreshing/deleting your web browser’s cache.
You have until Jan 22nd, so do not worry. And if by Jan 22nd, it still doesn’t work, then you can just send us an e-mail and we will upload it for you.
Thanks, Sam
Ok great. Which e-mail should I submit the essay to? I tried the “submit essay link,” however it just said error.
Thanks, Shelby Halligan
When I registered it said wait for a confirmation link but it never came. I tried forget password but it said mail() was disabled so I guess that is why I never go the confirmation link. I emailed theyakezie@gmail.com about it and my essay I want to submit
I am having troubles creating an account so I can enter in my essay. I never received an email to verify the account and I am denied access to login. What should I do?
I’m confused with the requirements. I know I could be a college student or high school student, but what about other requirements? GPA,citizenship status etc?
Cant enter essay because I didnt get a confirmation email about me registering on this site. Please help.
Hmmm, the surge in traffic from Fastweb.com may have tripped some bugs for users to register.
If you are having problems, you can submit your 700-1000 word essay, with bio, picture, title, and contact info to: theyakezie AT gmail DOT com and we will upload the essay for you until the bugs are fixed in the mean time.
I am a senior in high school, and looking forward to my college career. I am the youngest of four daughters. I am very active in sports. My plans are to got into pre-med, specializing as a ob/gyn.
[…] the Yakezie carnival other than highlighting the best part of the Yakezie- Yakezie scholarship. The second Yakezie Scholarship is live and accepting […]
[…] of good causes, not to be forgotten is the Yakezie Scholarship. The second one is open for essay entries until January 22, […]
[…] for grammar, and accompanied by a short bio with picture. If you are unsure about the guidelines, see the original post here for the complete rules. Also, we encourage you to check out the three winning essays from the […]
I have gone to the link and entered the information about myself, now I am on step 2 of submitting the essay, is there a way to upload it to that page? It is only letting me type, it will not even let me paste, but i have already typed the whole thing out in word.
HI Everyonnnnee!!
just wanted to drop a line :)
Hello! I submitted an essay but was unsure where to upload a photo and the additional information about “what makes me tick.” Hoping I can complete my submission before the deadline. Thank you!
Hi,
I noticed that you did upload a photo so could you please tell me where and how you did this because I can’t seem to find out how to do it. Thank You!
We will contact you if you are one of the finalists to be published and voted on. Please sign up for our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter if you have an account. http://feeds.feedburner.com/yakezie
Thnx,
Sam
Hey, I’m having the same problem as ToAlwaysBloom is. I just submitted an essay yesterday, but I don’t seem to know how to work my way around this site. Could someone help me out PLEASE!!!!
BTW. . .Hi People!!!
[…] Part of being in the Yakezie Network includes giving back to the community. This is done through the Yakezie Scholarship. The scholarship is open to any college students who are paying for the majority of their tuition out of their own pocket, through loans, or with scholarships or high school students or below who are looking for money to pay for college or buy school related items. The deadline for submission is Saturday 1/22/10. The first place winner will receive $600, second place $300, and third place $100. This is an excellent opportunity to help pay for school! Check it out here: Yakezie Scholarship. […]
Hi, I recently posted and Essay into the contest, but I don’t know how to tell other to vote. Is there a button I’m missing? Thank you!
Good luck to everyone who entered the scholarship contest!
Hi,
I just submitted an essay, but I can’t figure out how to upload a picture for my profile. I didn’t see any place on my profile where I could.
You will be contacted for your picture if you are one of the finalists for publication. Thx
[…] on January 31st, so hurry up and enter!A Giveaway for Students: The Yakezie ScholarshipThe second Yakezie scholarship is now live. Please head over and support it. This time the scholarship is now open to those in […]
Did my essay submission make it? It allowed me to get to the part where you type in your essay, I did not know I could not copy and paste, so I had to retype it and when I pressed submit, it came up and said no longer accepting submissions. Did it go through?
Thanks, and I look forward to competing!!
i am also wondering the same thing. does anyone know how i can check if my essay made it.Also, how do i update my profile?
There will be a post on Monday, Jan 24th explaining. Sign up for our RSS feed in the meantime so you don’t miss it. Thnx, Sam
[…] will be attending Western Governors University. I originally wrote this for a scholarship from Yakezie.com to help pay for college. but was about 3 hours late turning it in. I think I did a pretty good […]
[…] Link: http://yakezie.com/6334/writing-contest/the-second-yakezie-scholarship-is-now-live […]
[…] to a few feeds, do a few tweets (by Saturday), and you could win a copy. I could also mention the Yakezie Scholarship and its Saturday submission deadline here, but as they are already overwhelmed with […]