David McCullough Essay Prizes
Prestigious essay competition for high school students in Gilder Lehrman Affiliate Schools, honoring narrative or analytical essays on American history.
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DAR American History Essay Contest
National essay contest that asks students to write on a themed U.S. history prompt; entries go through local DAR chapters to state and national levels.
Fracchia Prize – San Francisco Historical Society
Annual research-essay contest on San Francisco history; open to any student attending a high school in San Francisco, with 1,200–1,600-word original essays.
Young Family Historians Essay Contest
Essay contest focused on family history and genealogy, asking students to research and write about their own family history using historical methods.
John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest
An annual essay contest from the JFK Library Foundation asking U.S. high schoolers to research and analyze an act of political courage by an elected official who served in or after 1917, with a $10,000 top prize.
9th Circuit Civics Contest
Essay or video contest on "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," analyzing one core right historically and today.
AFSA National High School Essay Contest
An annual essay competition co-sponsored by the American Foreign Service Association and the U.S. Institute of Peace that asks high schoolers to write about diplomacy's role in resolving conflict, with a top prize including a Semester at Sea scholarship.