Harvard Book Prize Brazil 2023 Regulations
The Harvard Alumni Club of Brazil (HACB) is pleased to announce the 2023 Harvard Book
Prize Essay Contest.
1- DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
1.1 The Harvard Book Prize is a voluntary initiative of the Harvard Alumni Association
which any local city or country chapter of the Harvard Alumni Association can
organize in its territory. The Harvard Alumni Club of Brazil organized the first Brazil-
wide Harvard Book Prize Essay Contest in 2022. The essay contest invites the
participation of Brazilian high school students from private and public schools
enrolled in the junior year of high school (graduating class of 2024).
1.2 The purpose of the Harvard Book Prize Essay contest is to
1.2.1 Identify students with interest in and potential to study at Harvard or another
university abroad, especially among segments of the population that do not
have access to information and resources to explore studying abroad;
1.2.2 Engage Harvard alumni in Brazil in a volunteer activity related to promoting
education and sharing their experience of studying at Harvard and
1.2.3 Offer an opportunity to Brazilian high schools to learn more about Harvard and
interact with the alumni community.
2- PARTICIPATION
2.1 Participation in the Harvard Book Prize 2023 Essay Contest is open to any private or
public school in Brazil. However, the HACB’s capacity to mobilize alumni volunteers
requires participation to be limited to a total of sixty (60) schools.
2.2 Due to the limited capacity, the Harvard Book Prize Brazil will not be widely
publicized. Schools will be mobilized to participate by the alumni volunteers. Each
school will have a Harvard Alumni sponsor who will act as a liaison between the school
and Harvard Alumni Club of Brazil, answering questions and providing guidance to the
school.
2.3 To participate in the Harvard Book Prize 2023 Essay Contest, the school must
register, filling out the following form and submitting it by June 15, 2023. Link:
https://forms.gle/2BTXFFCSkKTojd726 . The registration requirement applies to all
schools, including those who participated in 2022.
Harvard Book Prize Brazil Regulamento Página 2
2.4 School registrations will be accepted in the order they are received. If the limit of
60 schools is reached before the registration deadline, additional schools attempting to
register will be put on a waiting list. In this case, the Harvard Alumni Club of Brazil will
attempt to mobilize additional volunteers to open a limited number of additional
openings which will be distributed so as to allow access of underrepresented states or
school types.
2.4 The Harvard Book Prize Brazil Essay Contest invites essay submissions by students
enrolled in the junior year of high school (graduating class of 2024).
2.5 The Harvard Alumni Club of Brazil will also accept up to twenty (20) submissions of
essays by junior high school students from schools that did not register to participate.
3- ESSAY GUIDELINES
3.1 Students may submit an essay in English on one of the following three topics:
3.1.1 Brazil: Current Challenges
Briefly describe a big challenge Brazil is facing today.
How do you plan to contribute to address this challenge?
3.1.2 A Discovery that changed my life
Can you think of a discovery or a great insight that really surprised and fascinated you
and made you want to learn and study more? A book you read, a movie you watched,
an experiment (in school, in your kitchen, in your garden), a conversation, a lecture?
Briefly describe the discovery or insight and its impact on your studies and your life.
3.1.3 My role model
Choose a public figure (not a relative or friend about whom no public information is
available) who you regard as a role model. Your essay should address two questions:
(1) Who is or was this person (major accomplishments)? And (2) What can I learn
from him/her (why is he or she my role model)? You may choose a public figure from
any field -- arts, sciences, sports, popular culture, politician, business leader, religious
leader, activist, writer or other.
3.2 Essays must have a minimum of 750 and a maximum of 1000 words. Essays with
fewer than 750 or more than 1000 words will be disqualified.
3.3 Essays should be in an A4 format, letter size 12pt and 1,5 line spacing. All essays
must have a cover page with the information in Appendix 1. The student’s or school’s
name must appear on the cover page but must not be contained in the essay pages.
3.4 Public school students may submit an essay in Portuguese on one of the topics. The
same word length and formatting rules apply to Portuguese essays.
3.5 Based on the 2022 Essay Contest, the following guidelines may be useful:
3.5.1 English essays should be written by the student in English. Essays translated by
software, by the teacher, any other third-party or through Artificial Intelligence will
Harvard Book Prize Brazil Regulamento Página 3
be disqualified. Teachers are welcome to assist their students in the process of
writing, brainstorming, giving feedback and tips, but are not allowed to write or
translate the essays on behalf of the students.
3.5.2 Carefully read the topics. Essays that fail to address all questions raised by the
topic will lose points in the review process.
3.5.3 The best essays will show a combination of (a) evidence of research and (b) a
personal connection between the topic and student author. Essays that are only a
research paper or essays that only present a personal experience without requiring
any research will not be among the winners.
4- ESSAY SUBMISSION
4.1 Each participating school may submit up to four (4) student essays to the evaluation
committee. If more than four students write essays, the school should promote an
internal selection of the best four essays.
4.2 Each essay must be in a separate PDF file. The file name should contain the name
of the school and the first and last name of the student.
4.3 Essays must be submitted by email to [email protected]. We ask
that each school submit its essays as attachments to one single email. The subject line
of the email should contain the school name and name of the city and state where the
school is located.
4.4 Essays submitted to the 2023 Harvard Book Prize Brazil may be emailed to the
Committee starting Monday, June 19, 2023 and must be received no later than
Monday, August 21, 2023 11:59pm (23:59 horas).
4.5 Students interested in participating on their own (if their school did not register)
may email their essay any time during the essay submission period. The subject line of
the email should read “Participação avulso – <Name of the student>” Independent
submissions must have the same cover page with information as school submissions.
4.6 The Committee will accept up to a maximum of three (3) essays from students from
the same non-registered school.
4.7 In addition to sending essays by email to the Committee, each school or individual
participant must register each essay in the online form.
Link: https://forms.gle/owSXwK22GzFHPCWaA
4.8 By submitting an essay to the Harvard Book Prize Brazil, the student and her/his
teacher certify that: (i) the essay is the original work of the student and has not been
translated by a third party or software program and (ii) they are aware that any
submission considered the result of plagiarism, copyright violation or containing
language that represents a hate crime will be disqualified, and the HACB reserves the
Harvard Book Prize Brazil Regulamento Página 4
right to inform the Harvard College Admissions Office and interrupt the school’s
participation in the Harvard Book Prize essay contest.
5- HARVARD ALUMNI VOLUNTEERS
5.1 The Harvard Book Prize Brazil essay contest is organized by members of the Harvard
Alumni Club of Brazil who volunteer their participation.
5.2 Alumni volunteers play two important roles: (1) they mobilize schools to participate
in the Contest, acting as liaison and sponsor for schools; and (2) they serve on the
evaluation committee that reads and evaluates the student essays.
5.3 Volunteers who assume responsibility for participating schools (ideally up to four
schools) are expected to conduct at least one virtual information session with students
and teachers of their schools to share with students the most important lessons from
their experience studying at Harvard and basic guidance on the criteria and process of
being admitted to a US university. The information session serves the purpose of
building a bridge between Harvard, the alumni community and the schools.
5.4 Harvard alumni interested in serving as volunteers in the 2023 edition of the
Harvard Book Prize should fill out and submit the following form, preferably by May 31,
2023: https://forms.gle/WYQNy8X6jyXX8NYv5
6- EVALUATION CRITERIA AND PROCESS
6.1 Essays will be evaluated and ranked by a Committee composed of Harvard Alumni
volunteers. Identifying information will be removed from the essays before being sent
to the Committee, and each essay will be evaluated independently by at least two
readers.
6.2 Essays will be evaluated on four criteria:
6.2.1 Content: does the essay address the chosen topic? – 30 points
6.2.2 Language: is the language clear, grammatically correct, the text well
structured, does the essay succeed in communicating the intended content? --
30 points. Note: essays that appear to have been translated by a software
program will be disqualified; students whose English appears too perfect may be
asked for an interview in English (unless they are native speakers or from a
bilingual school).
6.2.3 Originality: Does the essay stand out? Express an original idea, show special
accomplishments by the student, show intellectual or emotional maturity and
the student’s personality? – 30 points
6.2.4 Effort: Did the student do research, explore various angles of the chosen
topic, read and cite sources? – 10 points
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6.3 Essays that receive a minimum of 75 points by each of the two readers (total of 150
points) will advance to the second round of evaluation, conducted by an additional two
readers. At the end of the second round, essays will be ranked by the total number of
points received from all four readers.
6.4 Due to the great difference in quality between essays from private and public
schools seen in the 2022 edition, the Committee may perform, in a second round,
separate evaluations of essays from private and from public schools and recognize the
top-ranked essays from each school type.
7- RECOGNITION OF WINNERS AND FINALISTS
7.1 The Harvard Book Prize Brazil Essay Contest recognizes three categories of winners:
(i) National winners – authors of the top three English-language essays;
(ii) Authors of the top three English-language essays from public schools;
(iii) Authors of the top three Portuguese-language essays. (Note: only public school
students may submit an essay in Portuguese)
7.2 Winners of the Contest will receive a certificate identifying their status and rank and
a copy of the prize book. They will also be announced at the Harvard Alumni Summit in
Rio de Janeiro in November, as well as in the HACB’s social media channels.
7.3 The Harvard Book Prize Essay Contest recognizes as Finalists all students whose
essays were rated above 75 points by all four readers.
7.4 Finalists will receive a certificate of honorary mention identifying their status and
will be listed in the Contest’s final report issued to all participating schools.
7.5 Winners of the Contest are encouraged to stay in contact with the HACB which will
make every effort to provide guidance to students interested in applying for study in
the US.
7.6 As a rule, the Harvard Book Prize Brazil Essay Contest does not award a material or
monetary prize to winners. In 2022, as an exception, a one-week trip to the US to visit
Harvard and other universities was awarded to three winners. At this point, such a prize
will not be available for the 2023 edition. Should members of the Harvard Alumni
community step forward to donate another prize in 2023, the Book Prize organizers will
make an announcement to this effect after the deadline for submitting essays.
7.7 The Harvard Book Prize Brazil will provide a certificate of participation to
participating schools whose students submitted essays.
7.8 The Harvard Book Prize Brazil will not provide certificates of participation to
students who were not among the finalists.
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8- TIMELINE OF THE 2023 CONTEST
The timeline of the Harvard Book Prize Brazil 2023 essay contest is as follows:
Announcement of the 2023 edition to May 9 – 31, 2023
Harvard alumni and schools, and
recruitment of alumni volunteers
Mobilization of schools and school May 10 through June 26, 2023
registration
School information sessions and June 1 through July 30, 2023
essay preparation, internal essay
selections
Essay submission by participating June 19 through August 21, 2023
schools and independent student
participants to the HACB Committee
at
[email protected] Essay evaluation and ranking by the August 15 through October 15,
Committee (2 rounds of evaluation) 2023
Announcement of top-ranked essays October 31, 2023
Recognition of winners and finalists Schools may recognize their
in schools student finalists at their
graduation ceremony or organize
a specific event.
Recognition of national winners and Events may be organized in cities
finalists with multiple winners and
finalists
Should you have questions or suggestions about the Harvard Book Prize Brazil 2023,
please contact Barbara Schmidt Rahmer at [email protected].
Harvard Book Prize Brazil Organizing Group
Harvard Alumni Club of Brazil
Harvard Book Prize Brazil Regulamento Página 7
Anexo I – Modelo da Folha de Rosto
Utilizar como Folha de Rosto o texto partir da linha pontilhada e cadastrar as
informações mediante o Link:
https://forms.gle/79A9GTeZDiBjdt6G6
Nome completo do(a)
aluno(a)
Série/Ano do(a) aluno(a)
Título do ensaio
Tema do ensaio (marcar) 1. Challenge ___
2. Discovery ___
3. Role Model ___
Nº de palavras do ensaio
Nome da escola
Estado da escola
Município da escola
Tipo de escola (marcar) Pública ___
Privada ___
Idioma do ensaio (marcar) Inglês ___
Português ___
Tipo de inscrição (marcar) Escola inscrita ____
Independente ____
Nome do(a) Professor(a)
Telefone do(a) Professor(a)
Celular e email da(o) aluna(o)
Harvard Book Prize Brazil Regulamento Página 8
Anexo II – Formulário de Inscrição de escola
Preencher este formulário e cadastrar as informações mediante o Link:
https://forms.gle/s2SBRBcTCGe3eZzu6
Atenção: As inscrições de escolas devem ser encaminhadas através do formulário
Google Forms. (Link acima) Não serão aceitas inscrições encaminhadas em Word, PDF
ou outro programa de texto.
Problemas para acessar o formulário com o Link? Por favor, entre em contato por e-mail
com a Coordenação, [email protected]
Nome da escola
CEP da escola
Município da escola
Estado da escola
Tipo de escola (marcar) Pública ___
Privada ___
Pessoa de contato
Nome
Cargo
E-mail
Telefone
Nome do Padrinhoou da Madrinha do
Harvard Alumni Club of Brazil (se não
tiver, favor deixar em branco)
Como ficou sabendo do Harvard Book Convite por ex-aluno(a) da Harvard ___
Prize? (marcar) Redes Sociais ___
Informação de um(a) conhecido(a) ___
Outro ___
Se marcou “Outro”, favor explique
Outra informação ou comentário
