All current seminarians at St Vladimir’s Seminary are invited to compete in this year’s St Matthias Essay Contest!* The deadline to submit your essay is 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. 

The St Matthias Merit Scholarship Essay Contest has been offered annually since 2018, thanks to the generous contributions of a family of anonymous donors. These donors select the topic of the essay contest each year and develop thorough and thoughtful criteria to determine the winner.

This year's topic is as follows:

After carefully reviewing their child's first year of public education, the child's parents adjusted their budget and started teaching their son at home.  (Refer to the 2023 St Matthias Essay prompt for background.) As a decade passed, it became evident that homeschooling had definitely led to positive outcomes for their child and family.

In this decade, homeschooling is harder on the family budget. Yet, homeschool enrollment is rising rapidly as more and more parents hope for and work towards successful outcomes for their children and families. However, increasingly more couples are no longer wanting to have children.  

Essay Question:  What comfort is there in hoping and laboring for the best outcome of one's children when one can choose an easier lifestyle by avoiding them? In answering the question, include Proverbs 16: 2-3 and limit your essay to 750 words.

Please submit your essays to klin@svots.edu no later than Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, with the following items in the header:

1.)  Printed name of author

2.)  Signature of author

3.)  Date of submission

This year's scholarship for the first-place essay will be $3,500.

To read past winning essays of the St Matthias Merit Scholarship Essay Contest, click here.

 

*If you have already won a St Matthias Scholarship in the past, please kindly abstain from participating.