Introducing Pivotal, an essay contest on global problems for high school students

Key Information

• High school students (or equivalent), anywhere in the world are invited to enter the Pivotal Essay Contest.
• Students will write between 1,000 and 2000 words on one of three questions relating to future generations, AI policy, and ethics for a $25,000 prize pool. 
• Submissions are open until 10 October 2023 in your local timezone.
• Students can enter the contest here.
• See why and how you can increase the contest's impact 

Why hold an essay contest?

Many of the best high school students look for ways to excel outside of the classroom. Every year, tens of thousands of students enter essay contests, yet many existing ones focus only on synthesizing existing fields and improving academic writing. While these are important, we created the Pivotal Essay Contest for students to engage with new ideas, think originally and explore deeply — getting them closer to changing the world in the process.

When we surveyed students about the contest details and the size of the prize pool, many students thought of the contest as an educational scholarship. Many students worldwide spend hours writing (personal) essays for such scholarships ("If you were an ice cream flavour, which would you be and why?"). In this framing, Pivotal offers an opportunity for those students to use this time to research impactful and different questions about the future of humanity.

How can you help?

• Nominate your friend(s), family members or fellow students to give them some of the tools they need to make a lasting positive impact on the world
• Apply to grade essays if you want to engage with outside perspectives on long-term issues from students everywhere (and earn extra money). We expect that those well-versed in the philosophy of the long-term future, AI safety, or policy will be a particularly good fit — though this opportunity is open to anyone, including students.
• Share constructive feedback there, through the comments, or by email at [email protected]; all are equally fine.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for Open Philanthropy's financial support and Oxford University's Global Priorities Institute for their partnership and collaboration in organizing this contest.

Thanks to the following for their support and guidance: Luke Freeman, Peter McIntyre, Jamie Harris, Neha Singh, and the dozens of people that red-teamed our website and provided valuable feedback.